1828, ISBN: a3771b0dc73b9d00c318217517594f08

Paperback

[SC: 18.55], [PU: John Murray, 1828., London:], AFRICA, Two volumes. 8vo. xii, [4], 471, [1]; iv, 467, [1] pp. 12 engraved plates, including 2 engraved frontispieces, wood-engravings, and… More...

[SC: 18.55], [PU: John Murray, 1828., London:], AFRICA, Two volumes. 8vo. xii, [4], 471, [1]; iv, 467, [1] pp. 12 engraved plates, including 2 engraved frontispieces, wood-engravings, and 4 folding maps [2 being large folding maps entitled: "Travels & Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa," and 2 more are smaller: "Lake Tchad," "A Reduction of Belle’s Map of Central Africa"], appendices; some offsetting from illustrations, some roughing of folded map edges, light tears along folds, lightly foxed. Original elaborate gilt and blind-stamped calf, all edges marbled; extremities rubbed. Bookplates of R. G. Lumley (1813-1884), 9th Earl of Scarbrough. Very good. SCARCE AND IMPORTANT WORK, the first edition of which was published in 1826. The engravings are complete and based after drawings by Denham and Clapperton, superbly engraved by Edward Finden, one of the finest steel-engravers in England at the time. This narrative is compiled primarily from Denham’s journal, with a chapter by Dr. Oudney on the excursion to the mountains west of Mourzuk. A final section by Clapperton relates the westward journey from Lake Tchad to Sackatoo and includes an account of Oudney’s death. Among the appendices are translations from the Arabic of letters and documents brought back by Denham and Clapperton, including a document relating to the death of Mungo Park. There is a translation from the Arabic of a geographical and historical account of the Kingdom of Tak-roor, from a larger work composed by Sultan Mohammed Bello of Hausa; vocabularies of Bornou, Begharmi, Mandara, and Timbuctoo; appendices on the zoology and botany of the regions based on samples collected by Dr. Oudney; a note on rock specimens; and a thermometrical journal kept at Kouka in Bornou. "Walter Oudney was appointed by Lord Bathurst, then colonial secretary, to proceed to Bornu as consul, accompanied by Hugh Clapperton. From Tripoli, early in 1822, they set out southward to Murzuk, where they were later joined by Dixon Denham, who found both men in a wretched condition. Eventually proceeding south from Murzuk on 29 November 1822, a great antipathy soon developed between Clapperton and Denham, Denham at one stage openly accusing Clapperton of having homosexual relations with one of the Arab servant boys. The accusation was almost certainly unfounded, leading the historian E W Bovill to write that "it remains difficult to recall in all the checkered (sic) history of geographic discovery. . . . a more odious man than Dixon Denham. The party eventually reached Kuka (now Kukawa in Nigeria) on 17 February 1823, having earlier become the first white men to see Lake Chad. Whilst at Kuka, Clapperton and Oudney parted company with Denham to visit the Hausa states. Denham remained behind to explore and survey the western, south and south-eastern shores of Lake Chad, and the lower courses of the rivers Waube, Logone and Shari. Clapperton and Oudney reached Bornu where they were well received by the sultan, and after remaining in the region until 14 December, they again set out for the purpose of exploring the course of the Niger River. However, only a few weeks later, Oudney died at Murmur on the road to Kano. Undeterred, Clapperton continued his journey alone through Kano to Sokoto, the capital of the Fulani Empire, where by order of Sultan Muhammed Bello he was obliged to stop, though the Niger was only a five-day journey to the west. Exhausted by his travels, he returned by way of Zaria and Katsina to Kuka, where Denham found him barely recognizable after his privations. Clapperton and Denham departed Kuka for Tripoli in August, 1824, reaching Tripoli on 26 January 1825. Their mutual antipathy unabated, they exchanged not a word during the 133 day journey. The pair continued their journey to England, arriving home to a heroes’ welcome on 1 June 1825. An account of their travels was published in 1826 under the title Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the years 1822 - 1823 and 1824." - Wikip. Biographies: Dixon Denham was born in London. In June 1826 Denham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in December that year, promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he sailed for Sierra Leone as Superintendent of Liberated Africans. He was appointed governor of Sierra Leone in 1828 but, after administering the colony for only five weeks, died of fever at Freetown. Clapperton was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. He succumbed to dysentery near Sokoto, Nigeria, and died in 1827 at 38 years of age. Oudney was also Scottish, received his doctorate from Edinburgh in 1817. During his journeys he collected plant specimens. Stricken by illness, Oudney died in January 1824 in the village of Murmur, located near the town of Katagum, Nigeria (see vol. II., pp.255-6). PROVENANCE: Richard George Lumley (1813-1884), 9th Earl of Scarbrough. Edmund Lodge, The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire as at Present Existing, London, 1877, p. 526. REFERENCES: DNB; Ibrahim-Hilmy, prince, The literature of Egypt and the Soudan from the earliest times to the year 1885 [i.e. 1887] inclusive: a bibliography comprising printed books, periodical writings. . . manuscripts. . . etc. London: Trubner and co., 1886-87, p. 172 (1826 and other editions of Denham). See: Edinburgh Review, Sept. 1826, Art. VI, pp. pp. 173-219 for a very extensive assessment of the original edition of Denham.<

1828, ISBN: a3771b0dc73b9d00c318217517594f08

Hardcover

[SC: 24.56], [PU: London, John Murray, 1828.], NOISBN, 2 vols, 8vo, I: pp. xii, [4], 471, [1]; II: pp. iv, 467, [1]; with 13 plates and 2 folding maps, illustrations in text; occasional l… More...

[SC: 24.56], [PU: London, John Murray, 1828.], NOISBN, 2 vols, 8vo, I: pp. xii, [4], 471, [1]; II: pp. iv, 467, [1]; with 13 plates and 2 folding maps, illustrations in text; occasional light spotting, foxing on plates, some tears to map in vol. 1 and repair to verso; a good copy; bound in contemporary half calf with marbled boards, black morocco spine labels, turquoise endpapers, edges stained red; wear to spines, corners and edges, some rubbing to covers; with occasional stamps of the Free Public Library, Richmond, Surrey.Third edition recounting the attempt of Dixon Denham (1786-1828), Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827) and Dr Walter Oudney (1790-1824) to trace the course of the Niger river. With previous attempts to trace the Niger having ended in disaster, Denham, Clapperton and Oudney were dispatched on an expedition in 1822 to approach the river from Tripoli. A veteran of Waterloo and a friend of the Duke of Wellington, Denham was given command but treated his colleagues with such contempt that he soured relations between them from the start. After being delayed at Murzuq, the party crossed the skeleton-littered Sahara and reached Kuka (Kukawa) in the kingdom of Bornu (later Nigeria) in February 1823. Here the party separated, with Clapperton and Oudney making for Kano and Denham investigating Lake Chad. Following Oudney's death, Denham and Clapperton undertook a terrible desert crossing back to Tripoli and reached England in June 1825. Although it failed to find the Niger, the expedition opened much of north central Africa to European knowledge.'Denham, fêted in London as the hero of the expedition, and elected a fellow of the Royal Society, published his Narrative . in which he suppressed as much as possible all mention of his companions, and took the credit for some of their discoveries. Written in a lively style, and embellished with engravings of his own sketches, it became one of the classics of its genre' (ODNB).A first edition was published in 1826; this edition, the third, appeared two years later. Although the title-page and preface continues to make reference merely to 'the late Doctor Oudney', the truth was that Clapperton himself had died the previous year while being detained in the Fulani capital of Sokoto, and that Denham would soon join his erstwhile companions (although we should not call them friends), when he succumbed to malaria in June 1828 in the British colony of Sierra Leone (of which he had shortly before been appointed governor-general). Howgego C33/D18; Ibrahim Hilmy I, p. 172 (first edition).<