Author: ROCHEFORT, Charles de.
Title: Natuurlyke en zedelyke historie van d'eylanden de voor-eylanden van Amerika. Met eenen Caraïbaanschen woorden-schat. Vertaalt in Nederduytsch door H. Dullaart.
Description: Rotterdam, Arnout Leers, 1662. 4to. Contemporary overlapping vellum. With allegorical engraved frontispiece, woodcut printer's device on titlepage, 6 engraved plates and 37 engravings in the text (7 nearly full page). (38),475,(11) pp. First Dutch edition, first published in Rotterdam in 1658: Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles. Rochefort, was the pastor of the French Protestant Church in Rotterdam, and a resident for several years in the West Indies. His significant work was published to induce Huguenot immigration to the West Indies, including a natural history and ethnography of the West Indies: Barbados, Tobago, Sint Eustatius, Saba, Sint Maarten, etc. The first part describes the plants and animals i.a. tobacco, sugar, cotton and indigo. The second part is an account of the various Carib peoples and their customs, language and religion. A Dutch-Carib dictionary by Raymond Breton is found at the end. With excellent engravings. The work is an important and valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Antilles and their inhabitants (Sabin). - Age-browned, otherwise a good copy. Sabin 72320; Tiele 926; Cat. NHSM I, p.265; European-Americana III, p.162..

Keywords: America Barbados Caribbean Dutch travel Islands Nederlandse Antillen