Maritime.- Rodney (Sir George Brydges, 1st Baron) Letters...to His Majesty's Ministers, &c. &c. relative to the Capture of St. Eustatius, and its Dependencies; and shewing the State of the War in the West Indies, at that Period, rare first edition, 104pp., a couple of ink corrections to text, some light marginal toning, modern half morocco over marbled boards, [not in Sabin], 4to, [Privately Printed], [c.1784].

⁂ This is the very rare privately printed edition, which Lord Rodney tells us on page 102 of the published edition of 1789, was "printed some time ago and intended for the perusal of his friends only".

On the declaration of War against Holland in 1781, Admiral Rodney was ordered to seize St. Eustatius. This he accomplished, capturing an enormous amount of merchandise and wealth. Much of the spoil he confiscated and much that he sold belonged to English merchants, so that his action brought a storm of criticism which was followed later by many law-suits against him.

Sabin 8828 lists only the 1789 published edition. The last copy cited by RBH was in a Lathrop Harper catalogue in 1975 ($550).

Provenance: Rt. Hon. Stuart Macken[zie] (ink name on title, trimmed with loss to last few letters).