Description
First edition of A Tour In The United States Of America by John Ferdinand Dalziel Smyth, published in 1784. From the personal library of The Marquess of Hastings, Governor-General of India.
Octavo, two volumes, [8], iv, [errata], [blank], [8], 400pp, [errata], [3]; [10], 455pp, [errata]. Full brown calf, gilt title over red morocco on spine, gilt bands on spine. Includes half-title in both volumes. Clean text throughout. Bookplate on first free paper from Earl of Moira. An interesting look at life on the American continent in the early 1780s, during the American Revolutionary War, from the perspective of a native Scotsman. (Sabin 85254) (Howes S730)
This copy is from the personal library of the Earl of Moira, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings (1754-1826), who served as Governor General of India from 1813-1823. He also served with British forces during the American Revolutionary War, being posted in Boston under the command of Captain Francis Marsden. Hastings saw action at the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill. Later in life he served as a Major-General during the French Revolutionary Wars.
From Sabin: “The author first describes his arrival in America, his travels in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky, his voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, his coasting trip along West and East Florida, and his return through Georgia and the Carolinas to Virginia. After mentioning his brief settlement in that province, he tells of taking up farming in Maryland. He includes a short account of the Dunmore War of 1774, in which he served under General Andrew Lewis. The latter half of the second volume relates chiefly to Dr. Smyth’s experiences as a loyalist during the Revolution, his wanderings and imprisonment in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, his escape in a British ship off Delaware Bay to join the British army in New York, and the impressions he formed of New York and New Jersey while in that service. New England, which he had seen only while taking part in the Danbury expedition, is covered in a brief chapter.”
Full title: A Tour in the United States of America: Containing an Account of the Present Situation of that Country; The Population, Agriculture, Commerce, Customs, and Manners of the Inhabitants; Anecdotes of several Members of the Congress, and General Officers in the American Army; and Many other very singular and interesting Occurrences. With a description of the Indian Nations, the general face of the Country, Mountains, Forests, Rivers, and the most beautiful, grand and picturesque Views through-out that vast continent.