Naufrage et retour en Europe de Monsieur de Kearny. by [ MEUSNIER DE QUERLON (Anne-Gabriel ) ]

S.l.n.d. (1764). 8vo. 48 pages. Modern boards, red edges. Rare First Edition of this account of an episode from the war between France and England in India in 1762. In this conflict, the French army led by Lally and then by the Comte d'Estaing, won important victories (Muscat, Sumatra, Saloma and Manna, etc.). This work is particularly noteworthy for the first-hand narrative it gives of the shipwreck of the English East Indianman Fattysalam, off the coast of Coromandel on 28 August 1761. "The Fattysalam had been built at Bombay, and had never been employed in the Indian seas. She was intended to carry a great part of the stores taken by the English, and nearly 500 troops, which had been thought fit to send to Bengal, because after the regiment of Pondicherry, they were not wanted on that coast'' (Duncan, The Mariner's chronicle). The author, Meusnier de Querlon (1702-1780), captain in Lally's regiment, was then taken prisoner by the English, and was one of the 12 survivors of the shipwreck. After dangerous travels in India, he returned to Europe aboard an English ship. There is no indication of place or date of publication but Barbier indicates it was published in 1764 (the latest date mentionned in the text is 1762). Copy with very short margins, a few characters affected. Barbier, III, p. 400. Cf. Duncan, The Mariner's Chronicle, containing narratives of the most remarkable disasters at sea, such as shipwrecks, storms, fires, and famines, III, pp. 180-198.