ABYSSINIA DESCRIBED OR THE LAND OF PRESTER JOHN

384pp plus 8pp. Original blue marbled cloth, gilt title to spine. Small advertisement slip tipped-in before the first blank. Hand-coloured frontispiece, large folding lithographic map of Abyssinia and seven hand-coloured plates by Vignaud and Barrat.

Spine dulled with minimal wear at the head and foot and slight cracking to front hinge. Ex Essex Institute Library paste-down to front fixed EP and blind embossed logo to title page.

'A great deal of nonsense has of late been written about the appalling dangers of Abyssinia, and the extreme difficulties of travelling there under any and all circumstances, and one object of this volume was to show with what comparative ease (all things considered) several travelers - some very indifferently equipped - have passed through almost every part of the country' (Preface).

Written at the height of the concern over the British captives in Abyssinia who were freed from King Theodore by British troops in the year of publication of this volume. Includes: I. The country as seen by early and recent travelers; II. Consul Plowden's description of Abyssinia, 1852-5; III. The story of the British captives in Abyssinia. 1863-4 / by the Rev. Geo. Percy Badger. Continuation . November, 1864, to July, 1867 / by the editor; IV. Suggestions for an expedition, with routes; V. Bibliography of all the known works relating to Abyssinia. Vignaud's illustrations were drawn those in Thophile Lefebvre's Voyage en Abyssinie execute pendant les annees 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843.

Legends of Prester John have persisted since the 12th-century. Believed to be a Christian patriarch with a kingdom at the heart of the Muslim world, tales of his fabled earthly paradise have inspired explorers, missionaries, scholars, and treasure hunters for several hundred years to look for him in India, Central Asia, and eventually by the Dutch in Ethiopia.