A Description of the Island of St. Helena

Item Details

London, Phillips, 1805, 20th-century cloth

1st edition, Spotted, but rare so acceptable

[Dr. Francis DUNCAN]. A Description of the Island of St. Helena; Containing Observations On Its Singular Structure and Formation and an Account of Its Climate, Natural History, and Inhabitants. London: R. Phillips, 1805. Small 8vo (158 x 96mm; 6 ¼ x 3 ¾ inches). Pp. [i-]iv-xxiv; 1-239[-240], two engraved folding plates (one bound as frontispiece). (Plates spotted, the 1stwith with old additional folds and two small pinholes, overal general light toning). Modern cloth, spine lettered in gilt, marbled edges.

First edition, very rare on the market. The first monograph on the South Atlantic Island – a pivotal point on the route to South Africa, India and the Far East. Philip Gosse is responsible for the attribution of this work to Francis Duncan.

There is currently one other copy for sale, priced at £3500. The present copy is a prime candidate for a more appropriate re-bind.

'The first book solely about St Helena, A Description of the Island of St. Helena ... (1805), was published anonymously by surgeon Francis Duncan' (E. Benson & L.W. Conolly. Encyclopaedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, 1994. p.673). 'There is no separate account of this extraordinary island, so important and so interesting to navigators to and from the East, this will be to many a very acceptable manual' (The British Critic, vol. XXVI,  p. 575).

Francis Duncan joined the East India Company’s service in June 1788 as an army surgeon, serving in India. On his way home from India in 1801 he spent five weeks on St Helena, and this inspired him to write the present work.

Cf. Philip Gosse, St. Helena, 1502-1938, p. 434; OCLC 6068937 (many copies?)