NIEBUHR, Carsten. ~ Travels through Arabia and other Countries in the East, performed by M. Niebuhr... Translated by Robert Heron. With Notes by the Translator, and illustrated with Engravings. Perth: R. Morison Junior, 1799.
2 vols, 12mo (135 × 80 mm), pp. xx, 339, [1]; xii, 359, [1], half-titles, plus 8 engraved plates and an engraved map of the Persian Gulf by A. McIntyre, Edinburgh, for Morison. Very light browning to the map. Early straight grain red roan, spines with gilt rules, sides with borders in blind. Rubbed with a few patches of stripping to the leather surface. Joints expertly repaired. Bookplates and inscriptions of Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby of Knowsley Hall. A very good copy.
Second edition in English (after the first, Edinburgh and Perth edition of 1792) abridged and translated from Niebuhr’s Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Laendern (1774) and volume two from Niebuhr’s Beschreibung von Arabien (1772). It remains the only English translation and recounts Niebuhr’s travels in the Middle East, Egypt, Persia, India and Arabia — the first scientific expedition to this area, which was subsidised by the Danish king. The plates depict: An Arab on horseback; Dancing girls in Egypt; Procession at an Egyptian marriage; The way to Mount Sinai; Mount Sinai and the Convent of St. Catherine; Dress of the women in the back parts of Yemen and Scene in Arabia Petrea.
The translator, Robert Heron (1764-1807) was the son of a Kirkudbright weaver who raised enough money to study at Edinburgh University, supporting himself with teaching and work with local booksellers. Soon after translating Niebuhr ‘His imprudent habits overwhelmed him with debt, and he was thrown into prison by his creditors’ (Oxford DNB). Although he was freed and removed to London, he was once again imprisoned for debt, dying soon after. Howgego, to 1800, N24.