NARRATIVE OF VOYAGES TO EXPLORE THE SHORES OF AFRICA , ARABIA AND MADAGASCAR

Performed in H.M. Ships Leven and Barracouta,

Under the direction of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R.N.,

By command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.

In two volumes.

First edition: 2 vols. Vol. I. xxiii , 434 pages, Vol. II. viii,420 pages, frontispieces in both volumes,2 large folding maps in each volume, 3 plates, woodcuts in the text, light foxing, ink stains at the top of pages 431 – 434 in vol.1 , which slightly obscure the first few lines of text on pages 432 – 433, book plates on the front paste down end papers and ownership stamp on the title page of both volumes, half green morocco with marbled boards, red title labels gilt on the spines with gilt decoration, marbled end papers and edges, a good set.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography vol 2 page 133: The journals of Captain Owen and his officers were edited and prepared for press by Mr. Heaton Bowstead Robinson, and contain a large amount of varied information respecting many portions of Africa in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. There are a number of notes on the Cape, where Captain Owen instructed Lieutenant Vidal to survey the whole of the peninsula and the shores of False, Haut (Hout), and Table Bays. Later on a general survey of the South Coast of Africa was carried out by the expedition, " from Cape Hangclip to the eastward, as far as the Keiskamma River, and from thence northward to Delagoa Bay." Considerable information is afforded regarding the state of the country in the vicinity of the coasts, together with interesting notes on Chaka and the Zulus, and the natives of Delagoa and Kaffraria. There are large charts of Delagoa Bay and the coasts of the Cape, and some illustrations, &c. &c.