1840 Malcom - SIAM - MALAYA - Rare Wrappers

Title: Travels in Hindustan and China.

Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1840. 94 pages, illustrated with in-text wood engravings. Plus 2 pages of publisher's advertisements. Publisher's original wrappers. Front cover and title page foxed, otherwise in Very Good Condition, internally exceptionally bright and clean. Very Rare Issue, only one other copy online.

This is a primary account of the Reverend Howard Malcom's monumental missionary travels to India, Burma, and China, under the auspices of the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Union in 1835. It contains fascinating information on the social, economic, and political conditions and religious beliefs including Hinduism, Buddhism and Islamism. Malcom gives an illuminating and shocking account of opium trade, idolatry, slavery, and progressive poverty. Some of the places visited include Calcutta, Saugor island, Hoogly River, Madras, Catamarans, Singapore, Straits of Malacca, Bankok, River Meinan, Paknam, Canton, Pearl River, Bocca Tigris, Malaya, Siam, Straits of Gaspar and Sunda, Sumatra, and many more.

Malcom was a Philadelphia-born Baptist minister and one of the founders of the American Tract Society. He also wrote a very popular Dictionary of the Holy Scriptures. A tireless facilitator and worker, Malcom's literary, missionary and pastoral legacy remains integral to the Baptist church.