OLIPHANT, Laurence. - Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, '58, '59.

New York, Harper & Brothers, 1860.Original brown cloth gilt (extremities of spine dam.). With coloured lithographed frontispiece showing a winter scene in Japan, and 60 wood-engraved plates and illustrations. XVI,645 pp.First American edition. - Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888), British adventurer, diplomat, author and traveller, was private secretary to Lord Elgin and accompanied him to Calcutta, Hongkong, Canton, Tientsin and Yedo. The main purpose of the mission was the signing of treaties opening both China and Japan to British trade. The first part gives a detailed survey of the river Yangtze, opening up the hinterland to Western commerce. The second part gives a detailed description of the political and social conditions in Japan. 'The Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan (1859) gives a fascinating account of 19th-century gunboat diplomacy' (Encycl. Britannica).Cordier, B. S., col. 2376; Cordier, B.J., col. 547; Löwendahl 1224; Howgego IV, p.461-462.

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