Author: BERNARDIN DE SAINT PIERRE, Jacques Henri.
Title: A voyage to the island of Mauritius (or Isle of France), the Isle of Bourbon, the Cape of Good Hope, &c. With observations and reflections upon nature and mankind. By a French officer. Translated from the French by John Parish.
Description: London, W Griffin, 1775.Modern half leather. (12), 291 pp.First English edition, first published in Amsterdam, Paris in 1773: Voyage à l' isle de France, à l'isle de Bourbon, au Cape de Bonne Espérance, etc. . - This work was written by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814), the author of the well-known romance Paul et Virginie (1788). It contains a vivid description of life in Mauritius where Bernardin de Saint Pierre resided as an engineer for the French crown from July 1768 to November 1770. The author criticised the brutality of slavery on the island and as a result, his book was refuted and ridiculed as soon as it was published. Nevertheless, even though his observations were undoubtedly influenced by his being ardently anti-slavery, it is likely that his description of the cruelty displayed towards slaves on the island was accurate (The Paolo Bianci Collection 44). In the latter part of 1771 the author visited Cape Town (on his homeward voyage), where he was entertained by governor Tulbagh, whom he describes as an able and affable man of eighty years of age. There is a somewhat pleasing account of the Cape Colony and its inhabitants. Reference is made to the paucity of the European population, and it is observed that 'Holland perhabs .. fears the aggrandising of this colony, preferable in every respect to the mother country' (Mendelssohn II, p.263). Including visits to and descriptions of Île Bourbon (Réunion) and Ascension Island. - (Some foxing). - Sacrce.Ryckebusch I, p. 49-50; Gay 3264.

Keywords: Africa Islands Mauritius South Africa slavery