8vo. Volume I: xiii, 405 pp., tinted lithographed frontispiece, folding map with very small closed tear without loss, Volume II: viii, 347 pp., engraved frontispiece, appendices, English 19th century half calf blue binding with corners, marbled and gilded end papers, gilt top edges, gilt raised bands on spine, gilt lines on boards, covers very slightly scuffed, Ex-Libris on end papers, from the Library of Major General Sir Percy Zachariah Cox (1864-1937) one of the major figures in the partition of the Middle East as we know it now, scattered light foxing, otherwise set in very good condition, Henry Colburn, London, 1840.

Synopsis

FIRST EDITION. A rare glimpse of this region at this time from a western perspective.
This is the second book by the author of “Travels in Arabia”. This extremely uncommon account by a Lieutenant on board the surveying ship “Palinurus” (assisted at times by his colleague, Lieutenant F. Whitelock) added valuable information about the Gulf States, in particular Oman, then little known and the Red Sea. James Raymond Wellsted (1805-1842) was a surveyor and traveller. In 1830 he was appointed second lieutenant of the East India Company’s ship “Palinurus”, which made a survey of the Gulf of Akabah and the northern part of the Red Sea and in 1833 surveyed the Southern coast of Arabia. He spent two months exploring the island of Socotra and twice visited Oman, in 1835 and 1837.
During his travels Wellsted collected natural history material, including plants, and recorded observations on the people he encountered. He retired from the service in 1839, and died a few years later in 1842. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Astronomical Society in London.
Bibliographic references: Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2283. Howgego III, 635. Not in Gay; Weber I: 320; Wilson p. 242.