NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA; OF A SHIPWRECK ON BOARD THE LADY CASTLEREAGH; AND A DESCRIPTION OF NEW SOUTH WALES [with,] Recollections of Sicily, by Count de Forbin

London: Sir Richard Phillips, 1823. First Edition. 8vo, disbound. 112. A very bright, clean and well preserved copy, partially unopened. RARE. A descriptive account of the author’s experiences as a merchant seaman. Includes some vivid passages about a near-catastrophic gale encountered while sailing from Madras to Cuddalore, and observations on Indian and Chinese cultural practices.
“The only edition of this description of a visit to New South Wales in 1818 and one of surprisingly few accounts of a voyage on a convict transport. Cramp explains that the "scarcity of employment in England determined me again to try my fortune abroad". He found a place on the convict transport Tottenham, which struck a reef shortly after leaving Woolwich, and then transferred to the Lady Castlereagh, which at 842 tons was the largest convict ship of its time. Although the descriptions of the two Australian colonies are relatively brief, they are well written and give a good idea of Sydney, Newcastle and Hobart as they appeared to a visitor in the latter years of Macquarie"s governorship. Cramp returned by way of India, since Macquarie had chartered the Lady Castlereagh to transport troops there, but he was again unlucky: he was shipwrecked off India. He eventually reached England in 1821.” See Hordern 2007
This volume also contains Count de Forbin’s “Recollections of Sicily”, in which the author extolls the picturesque wonders of Palermo, Syracuse, Mount Etna, and Messina.