NOYER J. A. A. Mémoire sur la Guyane française (…) adressé en 1819, à M. de Laussat, alors Commandant et Administrateur, pour le Roi. Publié sous le Gouvernement de M. le Baron de Milius, en Mars 1824.

Sabin, 56211 ; not in Leclerc (who mentions another work by Noyer).

A very rare geographical and statistical memoir printed in Cayenne. We were able to trace only three copies on WorldCat ( two in the BnF and one in Germany, BSB München).

The work was written by a Guianese colonist for Count Pierre-Clément de Laussat (1756-1835), Governor of Cayenne and last Administrator of Louisiana. It provides a highly accurate geographical description of French Guiana, detailing its natural resources (coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, cotton, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, breadfruit, etc.), flora and fauna, as well as agricultural and industrial settlements. One chapter deals with the issue of slavery, evoking the "Nègres marrons" (runaway slaves). There is a section on meteorology and physics experiments: thermometer, barometer, variation of the magnet, meridian, pendulum experiments in Cayenne, and so on.

At the end of the volume there is a description of the town of Cayenne, with comments on public education, the college and the health centre. In a catalogue published by Librairie Chamonal in 2001 (Livres anciens – Voyages – Géographie – Marine, no. 323) there was a manuscript with a slightly different title, which appears to be a clean copy before printing our memoir. A note on the title of the manuscript stated that 300 copies of the printed work had been printed, a figure that seems quite exaggerated given the very small number of copies that have survived. We also know of a Mémoire sur les forêts vierges de la Guyane (Paris, Huzard, 1827), quoted by Sabin and Leclerc, by Mr Noyer, a "former engineer-geographer and resident-owner" in Cayenne.

A perfectly preserved copy, with very wide margins; some slight foxing or toning.