Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (two volume set)

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1843. First American edition. Hardcover. Good. Frederick Catherwood. 459; 478pp. Octavo [23 cm] Brown pebbled cloth over boards, with gilt stamped titles on the backstrips, and elaborately ornamental designs in gilt and blind on the backstrips and boards. Volume 2 has been rebacked, with the original spine laid over, and has new endsheets. Fold-out frontispieces in both volumes. There is a 2 inch loss from the head of the backstrip of volume 1. The text block of this volume is cracked multiple times, but is still quite sturdy. The text block of volume 2 is cracked here and there near the center. Tissue guards darkened. Pages lightly foxed. Illustrated throughout. Fold-out map present in volume one. Missing two illustrations in volume 2- 41 and 42. John Lloyd Stephens' account of his second exploration of the ruined remains of the Maya civilization in the Yucatan. The author first published "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan" in 1841. This work is the author's more thorough exploration of the ruins of the Yucatan. The Preface explains that the pages herein "describe, as the author has reason to believe, the most extensive journey ever made by a stranger in that peninsula, and contain the account of visits to forty-four ruined cities, or places in which remains or vestiges of ancient population were found. The existence of most of these ruins was entirely unknown to the residents of the capital; - but few had ever been visited by white inhabitants; - they were desolate, and overgrown with trees. For a brief space the stillness that reigned around them was broken, and they were again left to solitude and silence. Time and the elements are hastening them to utter destruction."

Illustrated by 120 extraordinary engravings by Frederick Catherwood, the British illustrator and archaeologist who accompanied Stephens on his expedition.

A classic travel narrative of the Yucatan, and one which would spur popular and scholarly interest in the area.