An Account of the Kingdom of Nepaul, being the Substance of Observations made during a Mission to that Country, in the Year 1793 - William J. Kirkpatrick 1811 - Printed for William Miller by Bulmer &, London - First Edition A beautiful first edition of the first major work on Nepal in English, illustrated with a large engraved folding map and fourteen engraved plates, including the hand-coloured plate of a Nepal ‘Khalidge’ Pheasant.

At the request of the Nepalese, Kirkpatrick was sent by the British to mediate between the Chinese and the Nepalese when the former attacked across Tibet and lay at the outskirts of Kathmandu. Kirkpatrick, the British officers who accompanied him, and his fellow officials were the first British to set foot in the secluded valley of Nepal.
  ‘William Kirkpatrick (1754–1812), orientalist, born in 1754, was eldest son of Colonel James Kirkpatrick, Madras army. A cadet of 1771, rising through the ranks to become Major-General in 1811. He was Persian interpreter to Lieutenant-general Giles Stibbert, who was commander-in-chief in Bengal in 1777–9 and 1780–5, and prepared a Persian translation of the articles of war (printed 1782). Afterwards he was resident with Scindia at Gwalior, and served on Lord Cornwallis's staff as Persian interpreter in the Mysore war of 1790–1.

In 1793, in consequence of disputes between the Nepaulese and the lama of Tibet, a Chinese army crossed Tibet, and took up a position near Katmandu, in view of the Ganges valley. The Nepaulese implored the aid of British arms. Cornwallis offered to mediate, and Kirkpatrick was deputed to meet the Nepaulese envoys at Patna, and afterwards proceeded to Nayakote, where the Nepaul rajahs held their court. The officers of the mission, Kirkpatrick and his suite, were the first Englishmen ‘to pass the range of lofty mountains separating the secluded valley of Nepaul from the north-east part of Bengal’. Cornwallis testified that ‘no one could have acquitted himself with more ability, prudence, and circumspection’.

In 1795 Kirkpatrick was appointed resident with the nizam of Hyderabad, but in 1797 was invalided to the Cape, being replaced by his brother, Lieutenant-colonel James Achilles Kirkpatrick. At Cape Town Kirkpatrick met the Marquis Wellesley, who took him back to India with him as confidential military secretary. In a despatch dated 10 Jan. 1802 Wellesley declares himself indebted to Kirkpatrick ‘for the seasonable information which enabled me to extinguish French influence in the Deccan, and to frustrate the vindictive projects of Tippoo Sultaun’. Kirkpatrick was appointed one of the commissioners for the partition of Mysore after the fall of Seringapatam, for which he received a sum of ten thousand pagodas, and in 1801 was made resident at Poona, but was compelled to finally quit India through ill-health the same year.

Kirkpatrick suggested and promoted the Bengal Military Fund. He translated various works from the Persian, and also published a translation of the ‘Diary and Letters of Tippoo Sultaun’ (London, 1804), and an ‘Account of the Mission to Nepaul in 1793’ (London, 1811). He helped to select the library deposited in the India House, Leadenhall Street, and now at the India Office. He was a man of mild and amiable manner, and in his skill in oriental tongues and knowledge of the manners, customs, and laws of India was declared by the Marquis Wellesley to be unequalled by any man he ever met in India.’ - Henry Manners Chichester,
Dictionary of National Biography.

Reference: Lowndes II, 1280. Morrison I 408-09. Cox,
Literature of Travel, I 311.

Quarto (binding size 29.8x25cm), pp. [6] xix [1 (List of Plates)] 386 [2 (Index)] [4 (Publisher’s Catalogue)] [2].
  Finely bound by Philip Dusel in period-style full tan calf, spine lettered lettered and ruled in gilt, elaborate gilt decoration to spine and boards as well as edges and turn-ins, tan endpapers, marbled edges.   Condition: Near fine, offsetting from plates, folding map with some short splits along folds and tear to stub, in fine binding.   Ref: 111557   Price: HK$ 24,000