Beschrijving
Lisboa , Imprensa Nacional, 1863, in-8°, 221 pp + folding map (Pelos S. Maury e Silas Bent, Officiaes da Marinha Americana, 1855) + (2)nn pp, half leather binding, marbled boards, some staining to some pages and map, gilt title on spine, Pereira was Captain of the corvette D. João I during its 1860 voyage to Yedo, the capital of Japan. The purpose of the voyage was to negotiate a trade treaty-is described here with detailed accounts of Japanese customs and dress, politics, industry and geography. The second section of the work is a history of Luso-Japanese relations with references to Fernão Mendes Pinto, Diogo do Couto, the American Francis Hawks, and others. Like the United States, Portugal wanted to see Japan opened up to foreign trade. With the success of Perry in 1853, other countries began to send diplomatic missions to Japan, and Portugal was one of the first to do so.
Marques Pereira, son of the diplomat Antonio Feliciano Marques Pereira, was a naval superintendent in Goa and a lieutenant captain in the National Armada. First edition of the account of the first modern Portugese attempt to open up Japan to Portugal and Western Europe, seven years after Commander Perry's voyage. (See Kyoto University Nipponalia I, 2061). Not in Cordier, Japonica or Hill, Pacific Voyages. Not in Welsh or Greenlee Catalogue. NUC: DLC, NSyU, OCL, DCU-IA, NN, NjP. Scarce.
