Memoirs of a Malayan Family,: Written by Themselves and Translated from the Original.

London: Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund. Sold by J. Murray, Albemarle Street; and Parbury, Allen & Co., Leadenhall Street,, 1830. Attractive copy of the earliest known work of Malay biography First edition, uncommon in commerce, of the first translation of the landmark biography Hikayat Nakhoda Muda. According to Abdullah Bin Abdul Kadir, the father of modern Malay literature, the text was among the most important Malay works published in his lifetime. The ornamental subscriber's leaf names the third Marquess of Londonderry, who served under the future Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War. Memoirs of a Malayan Family describes the changing fortunes of three generations of the same family and is centred on Nakhoda Muda, an influential pepper trader in the Sumatra region with close links to the sultan. The arrival of a British ship captained by Thomas Forrest causes antagonisms between Malays and the Dutch, who accuse Muda's family of selling pepper to the British - a charge which forces them to flee to seek the protection of the British resident. The text provides important insights into British-Dutch tensions in Java and Sumatra and the way local rulers and commercial elites adapted and responded to these conflicts. Lauddin (Muda's son) transcribed this account around 1788 for Butter Hunnings, the English factor in Lais (southern Sumatra). The manuscript was brought to England in 1791 and translated by William Marsden (1754-1836), an East India Company civil servant and a future first secretary to the admiralty, while he was engaged compiling a dictionary of the Malayan language. The manuscript is now found in the Marsden Collection at SOAS. Provenance: from the library of Charles William Vane (formerly Stewart), third Marquess of Londonderry (1778–1854), with his pencilled pressmark on the front pastedown. Londonderry took the surname Vane on marrying Frances Anne Emily Vane-Tempest in 1819. A brave but not particularly brilliant soldier - Sir John Moore described him as "a very silly fellow" - Vane served with variable distinction throughout the Peninsular War. His Narrative of the War (1828), based on his correspondence with his half-brother Lord Castlereagh, was not uncontroversial. His dashing and dandified portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence is at the National Portrait Gallery. Large octavo (248 x 160 mm). Contemporary green half calf, marbled sides, title gilt to red spine label, gilt bands, sides and corners trimmed with blind foliate roll, edges sprinkled red. Additional Oriental Translation Fund subscriber's leaf printed in blue. Calf attractively retouched, spine sunned, a little stripping to front board upper corner, faint tidemark on subscriber's leaf, spotting to endpapers and first and last few leaves, else clean and bright internally. A very good copy presenting nicely on the shelf.