The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell of Leigh, in Angola and the Adjoining Regions (1901)

Edited with notes and history by E.G. Ravenstein. Pages: xx + 210 + 20 publisher's advertisements and book list (untrimmed), sans two folding maps, illustrations (Zebra), headpieces, bibliography, glossary, index. original blind-stamped cloth, gilt vignette on front cover and gilt lettering on spine. Scattered light foxing on first few pages, else very good.

Battell, an Englishman, was captured by the Portuguese and spent 18 years in the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Congo, where he recorded his observations and experiences including trading, the Gagas, wars, cannibalism, customs, religions, witchcraft, one of the first recorded observations of the zebra and hippopotamus in English, with a good introduction and appendices on other travels in the Congo, Angola, list of Kong kings, governors, historical material, etc. In the famous "Purchas his Pilgrimes," published in 1625, Battell is referred to: "The strange adventures of Andrew Battell, of Leigh in Essex, sent by the Portugals prisoner to Angola, who lived there and in the adjoining regions near eighteen yeeres… Of the Provinces of Bongo, Calongo, Mayombe, Manikesocke, Motimbas; of the Ape Monster Pongo, their hunting; Idolatries; and divers other observations."