Travels in Tibet and China. HUC, Evariste Regis. Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, during the years 1844-5-6.
London, Office of the National ilustrated library, s.d. ma 1852

2 vols. in 8vo, 190x122 mm; full cloth binding with blinding tooling on covers, gilt title and ornaments on spine. Woodcut frontispiece and woodcut vignettes on both volumes. Pp. 293; 304. A folded geographic map depicting China, Tibet and Mongolia at the beginning of the first volume and 100 woodcut illustration on text, 50 for every volume. Ex Libris on end-paper of the first volume “W.G. Melpenger from his father, September 17th 1854”. Spine with damages in both volumes, but good condition inside.

A beautiful edition of the work of French missionary Huc translated into English by W. Hazlitt. The work tells the account of the missionary trip, begun between 1839 and 1852, of the 15-year-old Lazarist Huc with his master Father Joseph Gabet, from Macau and Canton through Mongolia to Lhasa. The region was little known by the West and for this reason the two missionaries were sent to determine the nature and scope of Chinese domination. Huc and Gabet crossed the Yellow River and the Ordus Desert to the Kunbum Monastery where they began to know the Tibetan language and religion. They traveled extensively in the region, left Mongolia and went to Lhasa before they were stopped by the Chinese authorities. The account of their journey provided a wealth of knowledge on large areas not known in the West and traced the history of Christianity to China. Huc, who was the author of several books on China "written in a shiny, courageous and picturesque style that has provided them with an unusual level of popularity", became popular especially with this writing, which was very lucky and translated into several languages. Cf. Cordier, B. S., Col. 2119; Yakushi H249; Marshall 1334; Aschhoff 920; Howgego II, p.291.