THE NARRATIVE OF AN EXPLORER IN TROPICAL SOUTH AFRICA

First edition: 314 pages, tinted lithographic frontispiece, 3 tinted lithographic plates, 1 full page engraved plate of Nangoro King of the Ovampo, 4 engraved illustrations in the text, coloured folding map of Damaraland (with an inset of Africa) at the end, original speckled brown cloth titled gilt on the back and with a gilt vignette on the upper cover. The cloth is split along almost the entire length of the upper joint and is chipped at the top and bottom of the spine – the cloth used is notably delicate. The original brick-red endpapers are intact. Apart from some pencil marks in the margins the contents bright. Overall a very good copy which is now unsual to find in the original cloth.

Mendelssohn (Sydney) South African Bibliography, volume 1, page 585, 'The first edition of a very reliable account of an expedition to Damaraland and Ovampoland 1850-1852. The author was fortunate in finding so experienced a traveller as C.J. Andersson to accompany him.' According to the Dictionary of South African Biography, volume 3, page 316, 'This book, besides dealing with the events of travel, has much to say on the histories and customs of the tribes and the nature of the regions they inhabited. His writing is informative, accurate, lively and shrewd, and it admirably reflects the state of affairs in the country at that period.' Galton was a Victorian polymath and gained distinction in a number of fields. Amongst other things he was the inventor of fingerprinting.