ARABIA


WELLSTED (JAMES RAYMOND) Travels in Arabia, 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, 5 folding engraved maps (including large one of Oman), 7 lithographed plates, occasional browning in plate margins, tear without loss at edge of Oman map, publisher's green blindstamped cloth, gilt lettered spines slightly faded [Gay 3063], 8vo, John Murray, 1838
|The first volume of Wellsted's account is mostly devoted to Oman, and includes a folding map with the author's route marked in red. His first trip to Oman in 1835, with F. Whitelock, had been curtailed due to illness and unrest in the country. "None the less, the two reached areas which no European had previously seen and which were not visited again by Europeans for another hundred years... Wellsted seems to have made another attempt to explore Oman in the following winter, and to have arrived at Muscat in April 1837 in an acute stage of fever. 'In a fit of delirium he discharged both barrels of his gun into his mouth, but the balls, passing upwards, only inflicted two ghastly wounds in the upper jaw'. He was carried to Bombay, and thence returned to Europe on leave... Wellsted's papers read before the Royal Geographical Society procured him immediate recognition in the scientific world (ODNB, quoting from C.R. Low, History of the Indian Navy, 1613–1863, 1877). The second volume includes descriptions of the Gulf of Akabah, and the coasts of Arabia and Nubia.Provenance: Charles Napier Gordon of Hallhead, bookplates.