Haafner,Jacob. — Reize te voet door het eiland Ceilon. [1e druk].

Te Amsterdam, Johannes Allart, 1810. XII,CIV,467 pp. Engr. title, 2 fold. plates and 1 handcol. plate, each engraved Reinier Vinkeles after drawings by Jacob Haafner. Re-bound in early 20th century hardcover binding (dec. cloth-covered boards). 8vo. - Without the leaf "Bericht aan den Binder"; half-title is missing (but the printed text part of this page has been preserved).; later endpapers; top edge of last page sl. dam. (not affecting the text); a somewhat more modern sticker on the back with a handwritten title. Complete copy of the first Dutch edition, published in Amsterdam in 1810. # Tiele 435; Landwehr, VOC 350; Landwehr, Dutch Books Col. Plates 297; De Silva/ Beumer 461/462. - An illustrated travelogue of a journey on foot through Ceylon from Jaffnapatnam to Colombo by Jacob Haafner (1755-1809), bookkeeper in the factory of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Nagapatnam. Posthumously published, with over 100 pages describing the flora and fauna of Ceylon. "The importance of Haafner's eyewitness accounts is that they were done during the time of decay of the VOC. (...) Haafner was an anti-colonialist, a man before his time, for his ideas were not to be topical until more than a century had elapsed." (De Silva).