Lot 208
East India Company "Seaford" logbook - Borneo - Capt. Martin Gardiner. 3 May 1703 - 8 August 1706
Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 16 January 2013 at 10:00 GMT
Description
"A journall by Gods permission of our intended voyage to Borneo in the East Indies in the Seaford, Capt. Martin Gardiner Comander. By Henry Keene. Commencing from Monday the 3rd Day of May, Anno Dmi. 1703". Folio, 315 x 200mm., 174pp., contemporary vellum, some light marginal browning, binding soiled, spine worn
Footnote
Provenance: Property of the Trustees of Lord Gretton
Note: The Seaford travelled to Borneo via Batavia, Banjarr, Condore, the coast of Cambodia,and Tong and returned via the Cape of Good Hope.
Allen Catchpoole of the East India Company had persuaded the Company to set up a trading base at Pulo Condore, an island off the coast of Cochinchina, in 1701, to serve as an outpost from which to trade with China, as well as to trade chili pepper from Pulo Condore itself. This project came to a speedy end when all the members of the British settlement were murdered in 1705 by local Malays. Keene's journal of 13 June 1705 refers to this episode, listing the names of those murdered, and of those who ecaped.
A similar logbook in the BL collections: CXLIX Log book of the Seaford. Journal of a voyage to Batavia, Macao and Canton. Captain Martin Gardiner, 1 September 1700- 17 September 1702. East India Company: Ships' Logs, Ledgers and Receipt Books, 1605-1701