8vo. In three volumes. xxiv, xxiii, [1], 576; viii, 617, [1]; [2], xxxii, 477pp, [1]. With an engraved portrait frontispiece, a further 10 engraved folding plates, and 11 engraved folding maps. Bound by Vicary & Co. of Plymouth, Devon (tickets to FEPs) in contemporary gilt-tooled mottled calf, contrasting green morocco lettering-pieces, marbled edges, marbled endpapers. Lightly rubbed, some surface loss to lower board of Vol. I, spines sunned. Despite being competently bound, the large folding map of St. Domingo (96 x 66 cm) has at some point been naively folded, resulting in several short tears and significant protrusion from text-block, one further map detached, very occasional light spotting.

A revised and expanded edition of a monumental historical survey of British West Indian colonies, first published in two volumes in 1783, by planter and politician Bryan Edwards (1743-1800). A comprehensive and important work - with a great deal of material relating to the progress of the African slave trade and character of enslaved peoples - the fifth and final edition appeared in 1819, by which time it had further expanded to five volumes.

Ramsden records an entry for Plymouth-based publishers and bookbinders Vicary & Co. in a local directory for 1814; besides this, no further information regarding the firm, nor their publications, appears extant.