[Rarebooks] fa: BAIKIE - VOYAGE UP THE RIVERS KWO'RA AND BI'NUE (THE NIGER AND BENUE) - 1856

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th, 18th & 19th-Century English titles,  
auctions ending Sunday, October 9. More details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

William Balfour Baikie: Narrative of an Exploring Voyage Up the Rivers  
Kwo'ra and Bi'nue (Commonly Known as the Niger and Tsadda) in 1854.  
London: John Murray, 1856. FIRST EDITION. Original publisher's cloth  
binding, rebacked, with the original spine laid down; 8vo; xvi + 456  
pp.; with the half-title, wood-engraved frontispiece and title-page  
vignette, two folding plates.
W.B. Baikie (1824-1864), Scottish-born physician, naturalist and  
explorer, was appointed surgeon to the Niger Expedition, which set off  
aboard the little screw steamship Pleiad in 1854. Assuming command on  
the death of the senior officer at Fernando Po, Baikie made the first  
successful navigation up the River Niger and ascended its main  
tributary the Benue 250 miles further than any previous explorer.  
Perhaps most remarkable of all, Baikie returned to the coast after 118  
days without the loss of a single member of the expedition, an  
achievement largely attributable to his pioneering use of quinine to  
prevent and treat malaria. "Baikie's stay on the rivers proved that  
Europeans from temperate zones could penetrate the interior and  
survive there" (Gale Encyclopedia of Biography). See our other  
auctions this week for a volume of the Royal Geographical Society  
Journal (1867) containing an account of a later expedition of Baikie's.

With a folding map (tape repair to the verso, light browning and  
creasing) and large folding plan of the steamship Pleiad (some tears  
at the folds, tape repair to the verso). Original binding with bumps  
to the extremities, wear to the hinges, sunning to the spine and  
edges; repair to verso of the half-title page, leaves age-toned with  
occasional light spots and soiling; otherwise clean and sound, a solid  
copy. Title-page with small period blindstamp of "H.T. Dwight,  
Bookseller, near Parliament Houses."