Narrative of a Voyage Round The World, during the years 1835, 36, and 37;

The preferred edition of this account of Edmund Roberts' second mission to South East Asia by way of Arabia, including several important chapters on Oman, Zanzibar, and Muscat describing Said bin Sultan (1781-1856) and his court. With four added plates not present in the American edition of the same year.

Edmund Roberts (1784-1836) had first met Said bin Sultan in 1828 on a private trade voyage, who had expressed his wish to counterbalance the growing British interest in the area with an American trade agreement. Roberts returned in an official capacity in 1833 to negotiate terms, and again in 1835 to ratify and sign the treaty (reproduced in this work in full). By their third meeting the pair were on friendly terms and Ruschenberger (Roberts's surgeon) recounts the friendly exchange between the two. This was the first trade agreement made between an American and Arabian country, and paved the way for the first Arabian ship, Al-Sultanah, to land on American shores in 1840.

By the time Said bin Sultan took the throne in 1804 the Omani Empire stretched across the coasts of Tanzania, Kenya, and Somalia, from Mogadishu and Mombasa to Zanzibar. Ruschenberger provides a lengthy chapter on the geography, culture, economy, and peoples of Zanzibar and Muscat, including notable figures such as Hassan bin Ibrahim, Captain of the Sultan's formidable Navy, who struck the Americans as charming and elegant. Particular attention is paid to the apparent wealth of Said bin Sultan's court, describing the sumptuously decorated interiors as well as the numerous luxury goods they were shown such as cloves and Arabian swords.

The journey would proceed to Siam (Thailand), stopping at Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Java, before crossing the Pacific, stopping over in Hawaii, and visiting California and Mexico before rounding the Horn for home.

First English edition; 2 vols, 8vo (23 x 15 cm); 4 tinted lithograph plates including frontispieces, contemporary ownership inscriptions to pastedowns; original paper boards, with original printed paper spine labels, spines professionally restored with a some loss to spine of vol.2, still a very good set in original boards; 8 (ads), viii, 450; viii, 472 pp.