Travels in Southern Africa

Delegorgue’s two-volume set of travels in southern Africa was first published in 1847. The first English translations were published seven years apart by the Killie Campbell Africana Library; Volume 1 in 1990 and volume 2 in 1997. This is an important work on southern African hunting, travel and exploration but, sadly, they were published as paperbacks. This set has, however, been handsomely rebound in modern brown goatskin and will grace any collector’s bookshelves.

  At the age of 16 Delegorgue began to sail around Europe, northern Africa and the Antilles. At the age of 23, inspired by the writings of Le Vaillant, he sailed to the Cape of Good Hope and then travelled through southern Africa along with J.A. Wahlberg and F.C.C. Krauss aboard the Mazeppa. He made trips to southern Africa again in 1841 and in 1842, hunting and collecting artefacts for the museums in Paris and Douai. He hunted hippos, elephants, lions and buffalo and began to write about his adventures in a two volume book published in 1847. The second volume included a glossary of the Zulu language.^[1][2] He travelled again in 1850 to West Africa but died of malaria at sea on ship and was buried at sea. Several species have been named from the specimens he collected including the birds Columba delegorguei, Coturnix delegorguei and the bug Encosternum delegorguei. (From Wikipedia)