Dr. Melchior-Honoré Yvan’s Romance of Travel, From Brest to the Isle of Bourbon, Brazil, &c (1854)

First English edition

Yvan was the chief physician assigned to Théodose de Lagrené’s 1843–1846 French diplomatic and scientific mission to China, which resulted in the Treaty of Whampoa. His travel memoirs document stopping at Atlantic and Indian Ocean outposts (including Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, and the Isle of Bourbon / Réunion), detailing local flora, socio-political dynamics, and colonial life.

The flyleaf features a mid-19th-century ink gift inscription: "Presented to Agnes G. Bland by her esteemed friend B. Thompson, July 17th 1856"

Beneath the original ink inscription, someone added pencil lines referencing American themes or verse, reading:

"Dear charming America"

"Seat of independence"

120mm x 180mm x 25mm

Binding worn at the edges; minor preliminary foxing; some marks on the end papers and a few of the pages.

Vii, 334 pages, 6 steel engravings, complete.

Page 179 features Cape Town

R2,000