Bowdich | Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee..., London, 1819, first edition, contemporary calf rebacked

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

T. Edward Bowdich 

Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of other Parts of the Interior of Africa. London: John Murray, 1819

FIRST EDITION, 4to (272 x 214mm.), 3 engraved maps (one folding), 7 hand-coloured aquatint plates, 3 leaves of engraved music, one folding engraved facsimile of a circular in English and Arabic, contemporary calf, rebacked, foxing and offsetting throughout, extremities slightly rubbed

In 1815 the African Company embarked upon a mission to Ashantee, with Bowdich as their guide. On reaching Cape Coast Castle, he was replaced by the governor of Accra. However, the governor's diplomatic blunders soon restored Bowdich to his appointment. He negotiated a treaty with the king of Ashantee, all while his fate and that of his comrades hung on a thread, which guaranteed peace on the Gold Coast.

LITERATURE:

Abbey, Travel 279; Gay 2861; Tooley (1954) 95

PROVENANCE:

Royal Engineers library: gilt stamp to upper cover, stamps to most plates, and traces of erased stamp to title