Forrest, Captain Thomas

A Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas, from Balambangan: including an Account of Magindano, Sooloo, and other Islands ... during the years 1774, 1775 and 1776. To which is added 'A Vocabulary of the Magindano Tongue'. [1st edition, 1779]

London: G. Scott, 1779. 1st ed., large quarto, pp.xxiii, (i), 388, 13 (vocab,), author fronts. portrait, 32 engraved plates including maps, topographical views and plans,many of which are folding, music in text page 304, book-plate, foxing and tanning to title-page and fronts. and several plates and maps, otherwise, contents and most pages generally clean condition, early full leather binding worn with spine later rebacked in leather.

An early and important New Guinea voyage undertaken in the interests of the East India Company with extensive mapping of the previously unsurveyed coasts. Thomas Forrest (c.1729-1802?) was a British navigator with 'Company'. In 1770 Forrest assisted in the formation of a new settlement at Balambangan (Malaysia), which had been recommended by the Scottish geographer, Alexander Dalrymple. In 1774, with a crew of eighteen Malays, Forrest set sail onboard the Tartar Galley. He led the party as far as New Guinea’s Geelvink Bay, exploring the Sulu archipelago, the south coast of Mindanao, Mandiolo, Batchian and Waygiou, which he was the first to chart with any degree of accuracy. First edition complete with all plates and maps. Hill 623. Item #104037

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