Given by Mr. J. Gladstone
Mr Gladstone thought the author is the William Ferguson who appears in Paterson’s History of Ayrshire Vol.l p.143, 1863. See correspondence with J. Gladstone, 2 and 9 May 1974.
7 June 1731 – 15 July 1739.
Mr. Ferguson’s Diary of a Voyage to the Cape, Mocha, India and China, 7 June 1731 – 15 July 1739. Two xerox copies. 224pp.
The author attempts to detail and to understand the peoples he visited in his travels by describing the geographical setting, and social and governmental organisation and the lengthy conversations he had about the philosophy of their religions. He went on several voyages during this period and stopped in such places as Cape de Verdo, Trinidada, Cape Town, India, Mocha Rode in the Red Sea, Malaya, Macao and Canton in China.
(Two parts of the diary were missing: the first sentence on page 87 does not follow, and section No.5 is missing.)
