Description:
Two volumes. 8vo. xxxi, [i], 440; [ii], 482 pp. With 3 engraved plates (2 of which are frontispieces) a large folding map, and 24 text woodcuts. Contemporary half morocco and marbled boards; foxing limited to endpapers, overall in excellent shape. First edition of this account of Richardson's first expedition to Africa. The idea, to reach the "celebrated Oasis of Ghadames . . . amidst the most appalling desolations of the Great Saharan Wilderness," came to Richardson via the accidental reading of a brochure on a table in the Algiers public library. This glance resulted in a journey from Tunis and Tripoli in Libya to Ghadames and Ghat in the middle of the Sahara, chronicled in his Travels in the treat desert of Sahara. Readers travel with Richardson and his group through cities, trader routes and more oases, learning the language, the culture, and the religion of the people whom they encounter. It is as fascinating and rich as any nineteen th-century travel narrative.
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