ROBERTSON (William). An Historical Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India; and the Progress of Trade with that Country prior to the Discovery of the Passage to it by the Cape of Good Hope. With an Appendix, containing Observations on the Civil Policy - The Laws and Judicial Proceedings - the Arts - the Sciences - and Religious Institutions, of the Indians.1791

London: Printed for A. Strahan, and T. Cadell; and E. Balfour at Edinburgh, First edition, 4to, xii, 364, [12]pp., half-title, 2 folding engraved maps at end, contemporary diced calf, rebacked, label. "In his sixty-eighth year the perusal of Major James Rennell's 'Memoir on the Map of Hindustan' (1793) set Robertson again to work, and within a year, encouraged by Gibbon, he brought out his 'Historical Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the Antients had of India....' The book concluded with a wise hope that the account 'of the early and high civilisation of India, and of the wonderful progress of its inhabitants in elegant arts and useful science, may have some influence upon the behaviour of Europeans towards that people.' " - DNB.