EXPLORATIONS AND ADVENTURES IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA; With accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and the chase (sic) of the Gorilla, Crocodile, leopard, hippopotamus, and other animals.
John Murray. 1861 London, 1st edn, 479pp, folding-map, illus, folding frontis piece of gorilla. Very good minus copy, rebacked spine, variant binding. Item #000949
In 1859, Paul Du Chaillu, a young explorer of French origin and adopted American nationality, emerged from the jungles of the Gabon with 20 complete specimens of gorillas, an animal virtually unknown outside of West Africa. It was the same year Darwin published his “On the Origins of Species” and Du Chaillu’s discoveries and accounts made for a sensation. In 1861 he was back in London for the launch of this book and he became the most celebrated figure of the season during which he gave colorful lectures about hunting fierce animals and befriending cannibals. He is said to have been the first white man to discover the existence of the bongo. His work created controversy with many people doubting his reports and he was subsequently fiercely attacked in the British press. His personal behavior did not help; he was a ladies man and was given to plagiarizing. However, to defend himself, Du Chaillu returned to Gabon a few years later and despite immense difficulties brought back, among other things, a whole skin of a giant otter, the discovery of which had been dismissed in London in the haste to deride his character. His books stand as one of the greats of African exploration and hunting.
Price: $600.00