Twenty years in China & Macao
Cartas escriptas da India e da China nos annos de 1815 a 1835.
Lisbon Imprensa Nacional 1843
First edition, first issue. Two volumes bound in one, 8vo (24.5 x 16.5 cm), pp.[xviii], 245, [1, blank], [4, index]; [x], 235, [1, blank], [5], [1, blank], [2, index], 12 lithographed portraits. A very good copy bound in later tree calf. Some foxing to portraits.
Cordier BS 2114; not in Löwendahl.
A collection of informative letters written by the Portuguese merchant and functionary José Ignacio de Andrade (1779-1862) during twenty years spent in the Far East. Seventy-six of the hundred letters published here concern China and Macao. Andrade provides historical notes on the Portuguese presence in China and the imperial Chinese dynasties, as well as letters dealing with literature, law, and commerce. One letter contains a detailed description of the variety of teas consumed in China; another, dealing with the history of Portuguese Macao, strongly supports the case for the colony's sovereignty against direct Portuguese rule. The portraits depict Andrade and his wife, to whom he addressed these letters, Chinese historical figures, and Andrade's Chinese and Portuguese contemporaries. There was a second issue of the first edition with two additional leaves; a second edition was published in 1847.