[INDES] Voyage chez les Mahrattes, traduit de l'anglais par M. M.-L., et publié avec des notes sur l'histoire, le gouvernement, les mœurs et les usages des Mahrattes, rédigées en forme de Glossaire, par L. Langlès, conservateur-administrateur des Mss. orientaux de la Bibliothèque du Roi, Membre de l'Institut, etc..

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a hand-coloured frontispiece depicting a Mahratta soldier and his wife (cf. Brunet, V, 883).

Contemporary Bradel binding in red paper-covered boards, title gilt to spine, some rubbing to spine, bookplate pasted to one pastedown, corners bumped.

Some foxing; the half-title was not bound into this copy.

A former colonel in a Mahratta infantry regiment, the author published his account in the form of letters addressed to an officer in the British Army.

The first English edition appeared in Bombay in 1798 under the title A Letter to an Officer on the Madras Establishment, before being translated into French by the Orientalist Langlès, who supplemented it with notes occupying pp. 271-350.

Manuscript inscription: "donné par l'auteur, Portal", and C. Jameson bookplate pasted to one pastedown.