Voyage au Congo et dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique équinoxiale, fait dans les années 1828, 1829 et 1830 [...].

3 vol., 8vo, and atlas, folio. Text: [4]-xxxi-[1 bl.]-328, [4]-380, [4]-272 pp.; 1 front. (some foxing, occ. browning, soiling on some lvs, waterstain on the front., wormhole at the end of pt. II), mostly untrimmed. Atlas: 2 lithogr. ff. (title and table), 1 fold. map loose), 20 pl. (sl. foxing and browning).

Publisher's printed wrappers (some sl. foxing, sm. tear on a corner). Under modern paper-covered slipcase (text) and clamshell box with printed title-label (Atlas). Nice copy.

First edition of this early description of the Congo and the deep interior of Angola, complete with the Atlas, often missing. The illustration (complete) includes 22 plates: 1 front. (t. I) and 20 plates of the inhabitants and their way of life lithogr. by Diaz, Daussi, Boulanger, Noguès after drawings by the author, all printed by Engelmann, and 1 large engraved map by Adrien Hubert Brué. Douville (1794-1837), French traveller and explorer, would be the first European to enter that far into the Congo river basin. Back in France in 1831, his account was welcomed and the Société de Géographie of Paris assigned him the Great Gold Medal (reproduced on the frontispiece), and appointed him Secretary for the year 1832. Very soon, however, doubts appeared about the veracity of its story. While it is true that there are curious uncertainties about Douville's biography and inaccuracies in his account, his observations were confirmed by Sir Richard Burton himself, and much later, by Anne Stamm who scrupulously studied Douville's account. Douville's ethnographic observations are excellent, especially with regard to the political description of African kingdoms and tribes. Douville, also driven by commercial goals, was seeking to buy slaves at a low price. His account therefore often talks about the slave trade, the price of slaves, transport etc. Dry stamp of authentication on the front wr. and on the map.
Ref. A. Stamm, "Jean-Baptiste Douville : Voyage au Congo (1827-1830)", in Cahiers d'études africaines, 1970/37, pp. 5-39 (online). - Not in Chadenat.