Product Description
FULL IMPRINT: Printed by W.
Bulmer and Co.
for the Author; and sold by G.
and W.
Nicol, Booksellers to his Majesty, Pall Mall.
1799.
Half tan calf: early or original boards, sensitively rebacked in tan calf with blind ruling and brown gilt label to spine.
Marbled paper to boards.
Rubbing and mild wear to boards.
4to (27.5 x 22cm).
Rear endpapers mildly cracked at gutters, hinges sound; cracking to text block at gutter after dedication page.
Mild foxing to endpapers.
Professionally repaired tear to frontis and t.
p.
, affecting one word of title and just clipping image.
Lacking half title; otherwise complete.
With the 2pp.
postscript and accompanying double-page plate of music, not always present, at rear.
9 plates in addition to music: frontis portrait, 3 folding maps, 5 single-page plates.
The first map has Park's route marked in colour.
Partial split along fold of folding map at start of appendix (c.
16.
6cm), with old repairs to rear of map closing small tears, and map just starting at other folds.
Closed tear, repaired, to second page of music, slightly affecting notation.
Some offsetting of pigment from plates to adjacent pages, and occasional age-browning and foxing.
Edgewear to p.
9.
First edition.
Mungo Park (1771-1806), Scottish explorer.
The first Westerner known to have travelled to the central portion of the Niger river, Park studied medicine, but was more interested in botany (this volume includes two plates of botanical specimens, engraved after drawings by Park), and managed to make the acquaintance of the famous botanist and explorer Joseph Banks.
Banks arranged for Park to travel as surgeon's mate on a voyage to Sumatra, and, on Park's return, was instrumental in the Africa Association choosing him to lead a planned expedition to West Africa.
Sent off in May 1795 with instructions 'to ascertain the course, and if possible, the rise and termination' of the Niger, Park set off eastward, accompanied by two Mandinka servants, carrying his journal with him in his beaver hat (the only article of clothing which survived the journey).
After many travails, including four months imprisonment, Park did indeed reach 'the long sought for majestic Niger' (Travels, p.
194).
On his return journey, the sick and destitute Park was sheltered by a Muslim trader for seven months at the town of Kamalia: a plate in the Travels (after p.
252) shows a view of the town after Park's sketch, with Park himself in the lower right corner, complete with hat.
Two years and seven months after he set off, Park returned to England.
His 'Travels', first published in 1799, was an instant bestseller, going through three editions in the same year.
Giving English readers 'their first realistic description of everyday life in west Africa' (ODNB), it remains a classic of travel writing and one of the most significant records of Western exploration in Africa.
This is a handsome edition of the scarce first edition, complete with the two sheets of music (sometimes lacking) in.
.
.
![[First Edition] Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa Performed under the Direction and Patronage of the African Association, in the Years](https://r.kelkoo.com/resize.php?country=ca&merchantId=100567270&categoryId=5101&trackingId=96985762&width=auto&height=auto&image=https%3A%2F%2Fpictures.abebooks.com%2Finventory%2F32467528144.jpg&sign=6oVxDdLEfa3mZAHxUpRil5xx60pYfkoYV_2neGAZy_c-)
