A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the years 1792 and 1793: Containing a General View of the Valuable Productions and the Political Importance of this Flourishing Kingdom; and also of such European Settlements as were Visited on the Voyage... to which is Annexed an Account of the Journey, made in the Years 1801 and 1802, to the Residence of the Chief of the Booshuana Nation

First edition: this handsome colour-plate voyage book is the first illustrated English work on South Vietnam, particularly the region of Da Nang and Hue: Barrow gives the first accurate description of the region and its inhabitants by an Englishman. Dampier had touched in Vietnam on his circumnavigation more than one hundred years prior to this, but his visit was largely confined to the areas around the Gulf of Tonkin.

Although missing one of its coloured plates (which is supplied in good facsimile), this is how the book sat on the shelves of the Northern Lighthouses Board, the Edinburgh-based body founded in 1786 to oversee the construction of lighthouses in the northern United Kingdom, whose very good antiquarian library of travel and exploration books was dispersed in modern times.

'The voyage visited Madeira, the Canary Islands, and Rio de Janeiro; a description of that city and of Brazil in general is given. Touching at Tristan da Cunha, the ship rounded the Cape and eventually reached Cochin China via the city of Batavia on Java. The volume is also of Cook interest as it describes finding Captain Cook's Resolution transformed into a smuggling whaler under the French flag [p. 64]...' (Abbey).

'This book is the account of Barrow's voyage on the way to China and is dedicated to his travelling companion, Sir George Staunton. The detailed information on Cochin China is taken from a manuscript memoir drawn up by Captain Barissy, a French naval officer, who had the means and opportunity of collecting accurate information. The supplementary article covers an overland expedition from Cape Town to the interior of South Africa into the then little-known territory of Bechuanaland. It is taken from a manuscript journal, originally written in Dutch by Pieter Jan Truter... Barrow continued in the service of Lord Macartney, after he became governor of Cape Colony, from 1796 to 1798...' (Hill).

'The aquatinting is of excellent quality, [plate] number 10 in particular being technically interesting, since it appears to be printed in as many as three colours, with one colour added by hand, while no. 11 is printed in green, with other colours added by hand...' (Abbey).

The Northern Lighthouses Board's most famous engineer was Robert Stevenson, whose three sons followed him into the profession; together the family dynasty oversaw the building of almost all the "Northern lights" as they were known. The institution still today administers lighthouses (208 of them)  and other marine navigational aids for Scotland and the Isle of Man.