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Curtis, James; Golbery, Sylvain Meinrad Xavier de.
A Journal of Travels in Barbary, in the Year 1801 [...] with Observations on the Gum Trade of Senegal.
Publisher: Printed by D. N. Shury, Berwick Street; for T. N. Longman and O. Rees, Paternoster Row, London;
Date of Publication: 1803
Stock Code: 15167
First edition. Duodecimo, pp., 157, [1], 1 terminal blank. Later chocolate half-calf over marbled paper; spine on two raised bands; titled in gilt to red morocco spine label; new laid end-papers. Boards bowed, binding otherwise strong, sharp, and square. Even toning (particularly affecting title-page), a few spots, and light dog-earing to contents. Lacks the half-title. A solid copy. A diary account of James Curtis, a British army surgeon who accompanied an ambassadorial trip from Gibraltar to Fez. Curtis and his fellow travellers were captured by the French upon crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, and were held as prisoners in Algiers. Curtis’ account describes his captivity, visits to meet the Emperor of Morocco in Fez, and his eventual release to a Liverpool privateering sloop. The section to end on the gum trade is taken from the first English translation of Sylvain Meinrad Xavier de Golbery’s (1742-1822) Fragmens d’un voyage en Afrique (1802), Golbery was a captain in the French engineering corps who made several research trips to West Africa. The export of gum arabic was the primary export for French and British colonies in West Africa at the turn of the nineteenth century. Rare - Curtis’ account was translated into Danish and German, but was not reissued in English. £650.00