SKETCHES OF ALGIERS, POLITICAL, HISTORICAL, AND CIVIL; CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE GEOGRAPHY, POPULATION...AND RECENT POLITICAL HISTORY OF THAT COUNTRY

Boston, 1826. viii,310pp. Original cloth backed, paper covered boards, paper label. Front hinge weakening, binding rubbed and worn. Institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Scattered foxing. Good, untrimmed. A fine association copy, bearing an inscription on the front free endpaper: "Peter S. Duponceau Esq. Philadelphia. Forwarded by the publishers, at the request of the author, who is now in Algiers. Boston March 21st" and with Duponceau's ink ownership stamp on the titlepage. Duponceau, (1760-1844), was born in France, served in the Continental Army as aide to Baron von Steuben and Nathanael Greene, and became a noted Philadelphia lawyer and philologist. His correspondence with William Shaler on the language, manners, and customs of the Berbers of Africa was published by the American Philosophical Society.

An important work on Algiers by the American Consul General William Shaler, who sailed with Decatur's squadron in 1815 as part of a mission to secure a peace treaty with Algiers. Shaler served a total of 12 years as consul to Algiers, and this work "contains his remarkably accurate observations of the country, its government, and its history during his residence there; the book is said to have served as guide to the French expedition of 1830" - DAB. Shaler also had a remarkable career as a special government agent in the American Southwest during the years 1811-12, and was among the first Yankee traders to engage in business along the Pacific coast of America. The present work, an important source of early and reliable information on Algiers by an accomplished diplomat, marks the end of his career as an American agent. SABIN 79731. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 26060. DAB XVII, pp.19-20. ANB 7, pp.112-13.