BURTON, Richard Francis, Sir (1821-1890). The Lake Regions of Central Africa. London: Longman, Green, et al, 1860.

2 volumes, 8vo. Tinted folding map (very minor chipping to upper margin), 12 chromolithographed plates, woodcut illustrations in text; half-titles. (Scant spotting to a few leaves, otherwise fine.) Original publisher’s brick red cloth gilt by Fisher & Son with their ticket (neatly recased preserving original endpapers, repairs to spine ends, some light soiling, extremities slightly rubbed); half red morocco folding case. Provenance: C. H. M. (booklabel).

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, perhaps in retaliation for Speke having turned to Blackwood's Magazine for publication even though the Royal Society sponsored the expedition. Abbey Travel 275; Casada 42; Penzer p. 65-66; Spink 20.

BURTON, Richard Francis, Sir (1821-1890). The Lake Regions of Central Africa. London: Longman, Green, et al, 1860.

BURTON, Richard Francis, Sir (1821-1890). The Lake Regions of Central Africa. London: Longman, Green, et al, 1860.