The natural history of such subjects as occurred in the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms; and the geography of the southern extremity of Africa
Comprehending also a topographical and statistical sketch of the Cape Colony: with an inquiry into its importance as a naval and military station; as a commercial emporium; and as a territorial possession.
Variant issue, a mixed set: Volume I is from the second edition, 1806; Volume II is from the first-edition sheets, 1804 but with the correct second-edition title-page.
Volume I. xvi, 427 pages with the 8 fine hand-coloured aquatint plates by Samuel Daniell. Volume II. viii, 450 pages, lacking the last page of the index, with the large folding chart of Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and the 9 charts and plans, some folding and coloured in outline, bound in three quarter morocco with marbled paper sides, top edges gilt, a very good copy.
Possibly a publisher's variant issue.
For volume II of the 1806 edition Barrow condensed and rewrote the text. Volume II of the first edition contains the original, uncondensed, more expansive political and statistical text in which Barrow made his fullest case for British retention of the Cape. Therefore this copy combines the best illustrated version of the work (the second edition Volume I with its eight hand-coloured aquatints) with the most historically important text (the first edition Volume II with its unrevised political argument for British possession of the Cape).
Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography volume 1, pages 87 /88, 'Barrow was attached to the staff of the Earl of Macartney, one of the governors of the Cape Colony during the first occupation by the British. Barrow accompanied an expedition from Cape Town to Graaff-Reinet, and another to Namaqualand, and he gives an excellent description of the country traversed, particularly with regard to the botany and zoology of these regions. He provides significant evidence of the alleged brutality of the Boers to their slaves and Hottentot servants, and there is a description of the characteristics, habits, and customs of the various native races. The second volume deals with the importance of the country from a military and naval perspective. The plates by Daniell are not present in the first edition.'
Stevenson (Michael) Samuel Daniell, An Enigmatic Life in Southern Africa and Ceylon, 1799 - 1811, Johannesburg 2025, pages 115/116, 'At Macartney's behest, in mid-1797, Barrow travelled through the interior to provide the British authorities with a first-hand account of the situation with the Boers and indigenous people in the outlying areas. He conducted the first Cape Colony census, mapped the interior as far north as the Orange River, and provided detailed reports on the inhabitants of the regions. In 1798 and 1799, he undertook two shorter journeys to the northern and eastern frontiers. He did so with his customary rigour, and as Macartney wrote: 'I do believe that no person, whether native or foreign, has seen as much of the country, or seen it so well, and to such good purpose, as he has done.....I imagine his travels with be a great acquisition to the world. His map must be particularly valuable, as it is the only one that can at all be depended on.
'Barrow consolidated this research in his magisterial and meticulous, and opinionated, account of the colony, for which Daniell would provide illustrations for the later edition (1806).'
Abbey (J.R.) Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770 - 1860, Volume I, no. 322.
- Overall Condition: Very good
- Size: 4t0 (264 x 208 mm)
