MORRISON (Rev. Robert) — A Grammar of the Chinese Language.

Serampore: Printed at the Mission-Press, 1815. First edition, 4to (280 x 220 mm), vi, [2], 280pp., with the errata leaf, parallel title transliterated from the Chinese characters, some occasional light staining and age-toning to text, minor water-stain to fore-edge of last few leaves, but in general text is bright and clean, endpapers renewed, later brick red buckram, gilt title direct to spine, uncut. Reverend Robert Morrison (1782-1834) was an evangelist and the first Christian Protestant missionary in China. This, his first publication, was the first work in English on the Chinese language. Having arrived in Canton in 1807 and was working as a translator for the East India Company by 1809. Morrison's knowledge of Cantonese and Mandarin had a role in helping to facilitate trade between China and the West -- he acted as interpreter on Lord Amherst's Embassy to Peking in 1816, later publishing his own account of the abortive mission, and in 1834 was appointed Chinese Secretary and Interpreter to Lord Napier, Superintendent for Trade with China. Cordier Sinica, 1661-1662; Khan, 76; Lowendahl, 782; Lust, 1023.