Relation des îles Pelew

Rare edition, illustrated with numerous plates, some of which are very large and folded. In two volumes.
Large folding map of the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Islands.

The text tells, with the help of a good illustrative apparatus, the shipwreck of Captain Wilson and his crew off the islands of Palau. The book was a great success, probably because the testimony gave shape to the myth of the good savage that then raged in Europe.

The Palau Archipelago is located east of the Philippines, north of Indonesia and Micronesia; Captain George Wilson and his crew, serving the East India Company, shipwrecked on the nearby island of Palau in 1783.
The book tells how they were received by the natives and their king and how they lived, until they managed to build a ship to get to Macau.

Georges Keate, using the captain's diaries, reconstructed the account of the Antelope's journey to Macau. The introduction is a bibliographical search for the existence of these islands. The book reports on the customs of the inhabitants.