A Narrative of a Visit to the Mauritius and South Africa (1844)

• The second publisher was also the printer

• This Mauritius and South Africa visit followed a similar one to Australia two years earlier; the volumes covering both visits were published in the same year (1844)

• Backhouse's companion on both visits was a fellow-Quaker, George Washington Walker, who co-authored several of the appendixes and who decided to settle in Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania)

Newly quarter-bound with black leathercloth spine and corners; original green cloth-board sides with embossed design and original spine-band laid down, scarlet and gold spine-band, original plain endpapers with cream tape reinforcement to the spine; xvi pp of prelims, including an etching of Table Bay from a Bowler original as frontispiece, title-page with tissue-guard, introduction, title- and contents-pages, list of plates and errata, and a three-fold map of Mauritius; 648 pp of text, divided into 1-58 Mauritius, 59-65 Madagascar and Mozambique Channel, 66-644 South Africa, 645-6 St Helena, and 647-8 English Channel; lvi pp of 7 appendixes, (no index), 15 pp of inserted etchings and 29 woodcuts in the text, inserted folding maps, one very large (24-fold) at the back by james Wyld, Geographer to the Queen, 1844, with a red-line addition showing the route followed by the author and his companion 

CONDITION

• There is an ex libris label on the front paste-down and a small blue ink signature on the front free endpaper

• The recased binding is fine and tight; the contents are complete and otherwise unmarked and undiscoloured, making this an exceptional copy overall