Africa

From the Niger to the Nile – Lieutenant Boyd Alexander – First Edition – Two Volumes 1907

Published by Edward Arnold, London first and second impressions of the first edition of a two-volume set. Very nice condition in the original red cloth covered boards with gilt titling.

Large octavo, xvi, 358 pages and 420 pages with numerous illustrations and maps, three folding. A little fading to spines.

Heavy items which may require overseas postage supplement to our standard charge.

An uncommon set and fundamental exploration account particularly relating to the area around Lake Chad.

The expedition was originally designed to survey the northern parts of Nigeria and prove that Africa could be travelled west to east using the available natural waterways. Alexander was accompanied by his brother Claud, Captain G.B. Gosling, and a Portuguese explorer collector Jose Lopes. They set off in February 1904 from the mouth of the Niger travelling upriver to Lokoja. A survey was then completed of the Murchison Range. Claud died of typhoid. Alexander and Gosling continued on to explore Lake Chad, circling and charting the entire body. In June 1906 Gosling died of blackwater fever. Alexander pressed on with Lopes, and eventually reached the Nile later in 1906. Returning to England he received the highest award in exploration … The Founder’s Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He completed these volumes partly in honour of his brother.

The story does not finish there. Alexander returned to Africa with Lopes in 1909, visiting his brother’s grave and continuing to Ouadai, east of Lake Chad and then on to Nyeri, in modern day Kenya where he was killed in a dispute with locals. His body was recovered by French soldiers, taken back, and buried next to his brother.

Boyd Alexander across Africa via Lake Chad with quite some difficulty.

$360.00

Updating cart…

Gunfire in Barbary – Perkins and Douglas- Morris

Admiral Lord Exmouth’s battle with the Corsairs of Algeria in 1816

First edition, published by Kenneth Mason, Havant, England. Octavo, 199 pages, slightly toned, very good complete dust jacket a good copy of a most interesting book.

The combined English and Dutch fleets bombarded Algiers with all their might. The objective was to destroy the Corsairs who for near three hundred years had kidnapped masses of white Christians to become slaves to their Moslem captives. The slave markets of Algiers was a busy place. Admiral Lord Exmouth was successful but not without significant losses [greater than Nelson at Trafalgar].

Exmouth deals with the Barbary Corsairs

$30.00

Updating cart…

Treks and Palavers [Travels in Nigeria]-Richard Oakley – 1938

Before we go further “Palaver” is meant in the truest sense – an improvised meeting which was often held with groups to iron out some difficulty – Oakley was good with a palaver … Voyager likes this book – there is something special about it …

A first edition published by Seeley etc, London [they published a number of high quality serious travel accounts. Thick octavo, 300 pages, good sketch map and numerous full page illustrations from original photographs. No jacket, original red cloth covered binding, top edge stained red as required – very good condition.

A full and interesting account from Captain Oakley who was for a period a Magistrate in the Nigerian Administrative Service. He draws on other key references as well as his own extensive travels and experiences. We like it even more the deeper he gets into Nigeria up towards the Chad border. Surprisingly few good accounts on this African major and their now disappearing underlying culture(s)

Richard Oakley and one of the better accounts on Nigeria.

$60.00

Updating cart...

The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508; With a Discourse on Varthema and His Travels in Southern Asia by Sir Richard Carnac Temple – Argonaut Press Limited Numbered Edition 1928 – Edited Penzer

Limited to 975 copies printed on Japon Vellum printed by Walter Lewis at the University Press, Cambridge – this numbered 642.

Well bound quarto, blue cloth covered boards quarter backed in vellum, titles gilt to spine and a lovely gilt embossed image to front taken from the original 16th Century work. Effectively two works – the lengthy “Discourse” after introductions ... preface, tables, analysis etc of lxxxv (85 pages) then work itself from the 19th Century Badger/ Winter translation 121 pages, including useful index. Useful maps where appropriate in the discourse. Very good near fine copy.

Verthema travelled at the time of Drake and Magellan which provides perspective and in 1502 he went from Italy to Egypt and Syria and then to Arabia Deserta [Damascus, Medina, Jedda etc] … then in 1503 to Arabia Feliz [Aden, Dhamar, Lahaj etc] and on to Ethiopia in 1504. By later that year he was in Persia [Hormuz, Muscat etc] and India [Gogha, Cambay, Chaul, Calicut etc] Then to Ceylon in 1505 … Bengal and east to the Malacca and the Spice Islands, Java and Borneo. On his way back he assisted the Portuguese in various skirmishes – they being the dominant invasive force at the time. Back home in 1507 via Mozambique.

What makes this book particularly interesting is the history of the translations and the impact of early “reviewers” views. The original work was in Italian, translated to Latin and then English by Richard Eden in 1577. Various others held view and the influential traveller Garcia da Orta Poo Pooed Varthema’s account. Because of this and similar the account was thought to be full of fiction … not so and this book goes a long way to settle the myth and put Verthema back where he belongs as a truly remarkable early traveller.

His account of being chased by elephant in Africa is worth the read alone.

Verthema’s extensive really 16th Century Travels – Once Poo Pooed – but now seen as true.

$190.00

Updating cart…

A Burnt-Out Case – Graham Greene – First Edition 1961 [Based in Africa - the Congo]

Published by Heinemann, London 1961 First Edition.

A very good copy with the brightest jacket we have seen.

Greene at his most powerful – character put to the ultimate test in the African Congo. Based on real life experiences – well Greene had many of them

Classic Greene First Edition

$50.00

Updating cart…

The Spirit Ridden Konde [Lake Nyasa Tanzania] – First Edition D.R. Mackenzie – 1925

Longer title – The Spirit Ridden Konde. A record of the interesting but steadily vanishing customs & ideas gathered during twenty four year residence amongst these shy inhabitants of the Lake Nyasa region, from witch doctors, diviners, hunters, fishers & every native source.

Published by Lippincott a first American edition 1925. A beautifully presented book with serious content regarding the Konde people of Tanzania.

Octavo, 318 pages with folding map and 21 illustrations from photographs. Strikingly vivid blue cloth covered binding with gilt image of native to front, titles to spine. A very good copy.

Mackenzie explores the complex relationship of the Konde people with the spirit world and how it affects their daily lives and their rituals and traditions. He traces their origins and how they migrated to the Lake Nyasa region. Good descriptions of initiation rites of both young men and women. A super book.

No better book about the Konde of Lake Nyasa

$220.00

Updating cart…

From the Niger to the Nile – Lieutenant Boyd Alexander – First Edition – Two Volumes 1907

Gunfire in Barbary – Perkins and Douglas- Morris

Treks and Palavers [Travels in Nigeria]-Richard Oakley – 1938

The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508; With a Discourse on Varthema and His Travels in Southern Asia by Sir Richard Carnac Temple – Argonaut Press Limited Numbered Edition 1928 – Edited Penzer

A Burnt-Out Case – Graham Greene – First Edition 1961 [Based in Africa - the Congo]

The Spirit Ridden Konde [Lake Nyasa Tanzania] – First Edition D.R. Mackenzie – 1925

Product Categories