99 - [ΝΕΑΡΧΟΥ] NEARCHUS: THE VOYAGES OF NEARCHUS FROM THE INDUS TO THE EUPHRATES COLLECTED FROM THE ORIGINAL JOURNAL….CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST NAVIGATION ATTEMPTED BY EUROPEANS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN. LONDON, 1797

[ΝΕΑΡΧΟΥ] NEARCHUS: THE VOYAGES OF NEARCHUS FROM THE INDUS TO THE EUPHRATES COLLECTED FROM THE ORIGINAL JOURNAL….CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST NAVIGATION ATTEMPTED BY EUROPEANS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN. LONDON, 1797 First edition FOLIO, contemporary full leather, spine richly gilt, upper joint weak,a nice binding with few wear, complete with all the 6 folded,two folded tables and two letterpieces, text clean and bright,some very light spotting in a few pages, overall in very good condition. The expedition of Νέαρχος (Nearchus), a native of Crete, was among the first important recorded naval expeditions in human history and a very early travel account which provided invaluable information. The original account of Nearchus has been lost but most of it fortunately has been preserved in Arrian s Indike. William Vincent’s book was not just a translation; it was a massive geographical commentary that sought to prove the accuracy of the ancient account.He included portions of the original Greek text alongside his English analysis to allow scholars to verify his work and painstakingly matched the ancient Greek names of islands, capes, and ports with the modern names used by 18th-century British and French navigators. A sea travel of a large army in 326BC from the mouth of Indus river to the mouth of the Euphrates, all along the savage coastline of the Indian Ocean and the Persian gulf is a unique achievement of the ancient Greeks. Not by chance at the time of the publication of this superb account the British started seriously to focus on the Persian gulf.The adaptation of Nearchus travel from the Indike of Arrian had been done by William Vincent (1739-1815), a British Philhellen and geographer who characterized the travel of Nearchus as the first event of general importance to mankind in the history of navigation.