GEORGE RAPELJ: A Narrative of excursions, voyages and travels performed at different regions in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. New York 1834 First edition. Large in 4to 25 x 16 cm, modern green cloth. Text clean and bright. Complete: title, portrait, 416 p. Manuscript ownership inscription on front pastedown of William St Clair, leading Hellenist historian, with a few annotations at the end in pencil written by him. Overall in very good condition and with fine provenance. George Rapelje (1771–1835) was the first American leisure world traveler. After some voyages in America, in early 1821 he left for Europe. After a year wandering mostly in England and Italy, in January 1822, during the full Greek Revolution, he arrived for the first time in Greek waters, in Milos. During two months he visited Constantinople and Smyrna and provides interesting accounts. Suddenly, at the end of March, he arrived in Chios aboard a French ship. The Greek operations for the liberation of the island had just begun, making him an eyewitness. He kept a daily calendar during his trip. On Sunday, 31 March 1822: “We came within a few miles of the town of Chios, the cannonading still continuing. We saw a number of vessels of war off Chios, I thought Greeks. One of them bore down upon us and sent her boat. Three of our passengers being Turks begged our captain to stow them away… The Greeks had already killed 500 Turks on the island.” This is a detailed daily description of events. Rapelje toured extensively around the Archipelago before continuing to Syria and Egypt. He spent the whole year 1822 in the eastern Mediterranean. (Ref: Cassandra Vivian: George Rapelje, the first American leisure traveler, 2003.) His Levant account covers more than half the book, over 200 pages. An amazing account of a leisure American traveler in Greece during the Revolution. Absent from all major collections.