Commentaries of Ruy Freyre de Andrada: in which are Related his Exploits from the Year 1619, in which he left this Kingdom of Portugal as General of the Sea of Ormuz, and Coast of Persia, and Arabia, until his Death.
Year: 1930
Edition: First edition
Publisher: London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.
Category: Asia
8vo, pp. (2), lvi, 328, (8). Original publisher's cloth, top edges red, titles in gilt on spine; illustrated with a frontispiece, 4 (sketch)maps and 9 plates, of which 2 folding. Boards soiled, spine sunfaded, fore – and bottom edges a bit foxed, occasionally some very light browning in the top margins of just a few pages and some very scattered foxing, corners a bit bumped, initials plus a date on ffep.
Overall the contents are clean and bright, as are the illustrations.
From the preface:
"The book deals with a period singularly interesting to English readers as it describes at length the operations leading up to the capture from the Portuguese of the celebrated city and island of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf, by an Anglo-Persian force."
The book, edited by Boxer, one of the leading authorities on the Portuguese history and affairs in Africa and the East, appears here in translation for the very first time, making his account available to a larger public.
The book contains 12 Appendices comprising other accounts of the Persian Gulf in that period. The appendices include several Portuguese and English documents like "Simao de Mello's account of the siege of Ormuz", "Letter of Mandel Borges de Sousa written from Ormuz during the Siege" or Monnox's manuscript "History at large of the taking of Ormuz Castle" and various other, hitherto unpublished letters and accounts.
An important and scarce work.
Click on a picture to enlarge.
