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Synopsis

By the way of the cape of good hope, in the years 1783, 84 and 85. translated from the french of le vaillant. illustrated with a map, delineating the route of his present and former travels, and with twenty-two other copper-plates. in three volumes.

Item Description

THREE VOLUMES. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 8vo. 8.75 x 5.75 inches. Vol. I, l + 288 pp.; Vol. II, [iv] + 383 pp.; Vol. III, [iv] + 488 pp.COMPLETE IN ORIGINAL CONDITION OF 1796 WITH 22 COPPERPLATES In brown linen spines over original blue boards with printed paper labels. Rough cut edges. Age wear to extremities, including spines and labels and rubbed corners. Residue of old tape removed from tear in map. Otherwise a very good copy in its original state. Illustrated by folding map and 22 copperplates, as called for, including 5 folding. Detailed account of an exploration of the interior of South Africa, its wildlife and indigenous nomadic pastoralists, who are sympathetically portrayed by the author(although he had a negative attitude to the Dutch inhabitants). Francois le Vaillant (1753-1824) was a French explorer, naturalist and ornithologist who arrived at the Cape in 1780, probably with a commission to bring back natural history specimens,coming to specialise in ornithology and discovering a number of new species. He published two accounts of his travels in French which were also translated into English. The first was published in two volumes as Travels into the Interior Parts of Africa, by way of the Cape of Good Hope; in the years 1780, 1781 82, 83, 84, and 85, in 1790, to be followed by these New Travels in 1796 (a translated from his Deuxieme Voyage). This copy is complete with the half titles, folding map and all the evocative plates of travel and encampments, wildlife, birds and animals and of the local inhabitants. It is also unusual in having survived in its original condition as it came from the printers, in blue grey boards ready to be bound in leather. (ESTC T87469).