James Prior

(1790-1869) English traveller, author and theatregoer who visited Cape Town in 1810. Born at Lisburn, Ireland, he entered the navy as a surgeon, served abroad and at home, became Deputy-Inspector of Hospitals in 1843, and was knighted in 1858. He was the author of several popular works, including Voyage to the Indian Seas in 1810-11. His descriptions in this book of his visit to the Cape Town include descriptions of cultural life there and the play he calls The Shipwreck (1810) (a Dutch play by Brandes called De Schipbreuk, of De Korsaren op het Eiland Ivica).

For his monumental 1928 study F.C.L. Bosman used the Dutch translation of this book, entitled Beschrijving eener reis naar de Indiesche zee, met het fregat de Nisus, en naar de Kaap de Goede Hoop, de eilanden Bourbon, Mauritius en anderen, naar Madras, de eilanden Java, Sint Paul en Amsterdam, gedurende de jaren 1810 en 1811. Translated by Jan de Quack, and published in Amsterdam by J.C. van Kesteren, 1820.