8vo. xxxix, 415 pp. [2], frontispiece portrait lithograph, title vignette, half title, contemporary half-calf with marbled boards, title gilt on decorated spine, marbled endpapers, speckled edges, copy in very good condition, Paul Ledoux / Ponthieu / H. Langlois, Paris, first edition, 1827.

Synopsis

Cerfberr gives a long account of himself in the preface, stating that after the peace of Amiens in 1803 he went to Constantinople and took service under Sultan Selim III as a colonel in the New Army, whereupon he converted to Islam and married a Turkish woman. In 1809 he returned to France and then set out again on his travels, through Scandinavia, Russia and the Balkans, looking to take service as a mercenary. There may be some truth in his account. Larousse states that Cerfberr offered to carry despatches to Napoleon in Egypt and that he was taken prisoner by the English; perhaps on his release he went to Constantinople. His return to France was probably occasioned by the revolt of the Janissaries in 1808. In 1813 he offered his services to Caimacam of Bosnia and eventually took service with Ali Pasha.
Bibliographic references: Blackmer for 1828 third edition; Atabey, 212; Droulia, 1331.