BURTON, Richard Francis, Sir (1821-1890). The Lake Regions of Central Africa a Picture of Exploration. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860.

2 volumes, 8vo (213 x 133 mm). Half-title in vol. I, engraved tinted folding map, 10 chromoxylographed plates (of 12, lacking “The Ivory Porter” frontispiece to vol. I and “Saydumi, a Native of Uganda”), numerous woodcut-engraved illustrations. (Lacking vol. II half-title, slight spotting and marginal toning, minor dampstaining to the head of a few plates and a few trimmed close affecting text.) Original red cloth decorated in blind (rebacked with original spines laid in, some minor soiling, slight wear to extremities). Provenance: Ernest R. Gyles (signatures and stamps to a few pages).

FIRST EDITION, second issue, in brick red cloth. The Lake Regions of Central Africa is considered Burton's best writing and is also his first attack in print on Speke, with whom he traveled to Central Africa. Speke was the first to return to England and the first to publish findings in Blackwood's Magazine and took credit for their "discovery" of Lake Nyanza and the source of the White Nile. Burton countered with his denouncement of Speke's "inaccurate data and outrageous speculations" which the Royal Geographical Society printed in full. Abbey Travel 275; Penzer, pp. 65-66; Spink 20.

Property from the Collection of Robert S. Brown, Cincinnati, Ohio

BURTON, Richard Francis, Sir (1821-1890). The Lake Regions of Central Africa a Picture of Exploration. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860.