JAMES PRIOR: 'NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE IN THE INDIAN SEAS IN THE NISUS FRIGATE, TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE...

...and Seychelles; to Madras and the Isles of Java... during the years 1810 and 1811', folding engraved map after W.M. Cobb and three engraved plates, some foxing, London for Richard Phillips [1810]; bound with R.P. Forster's A Collection of the Most Celebrated Voyages and Travels from the Discovery of America to the Present Time, vol. II only, folding engraved map and four engraved plates only, Newcastle upon Tyne, Mackenzie and Dent, 1818. Two works in one vol. contemporary calf, new (rubbed) covered, book-label of W. Powell -- 8½ x 5¼in. (21.5 x 13cm.)

H.M.S. Nisus was a 38-gun 5th rate naval frigate launched from Plymouth in 1810, which served in the Indian Ocean under Captain Philip Beaver, capturing Ile de France from the French, sharing in the capture of the Tamatave, the Nereide and the French fortified port of Cheribon.

James Prior was the ships' surgeon and was present at the surrender of Napoleon in 1815, staff surgeon to three Royal yachts, later deputy-inspector of hospitals. He published another volume of an East African voyage, and major biographies of Burke and Goldsmith, knighted in 1858.