THE GAMBIA: Its History, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Together With Its Geographical, Geological, and Ethnographical Conditions and a Description of the Birds, Beasts, and Fishes Found Therein

First edition. 63 black and white illustrations from photographs on 33 plates and 3 maps, 2 of them folding. 8vo, original brown cloth lettered and ruled in gilt on spine, upper cover gilt-lettered and with a gilt vignette of a native, t.e.g. xv, 288 including index. A handsome, bright copy with only some minor foxing throughout.

Edizione: a work that strove to provide europe with a view of their colonies as real human societies with histories and cultures to engender a sense of obligation in their minds to provide human rights and fair treatment.<br> “more accustomed to the tangible difficulties that beset the path of the pioneer and explorer in front of those who make or write history, nevertheless, the author sallies out boldly on his hopelessly quixotic quest, and sets his quill in rest to tilt with the ethical truths against the windmills of the european powers, who have come to regard africa and african peoples as specially designed by a beneficent providence for their national aggrandisement, or as a makeweight in their squabbles about what they term the balance of world power. he therefore claims the indulgence of those who wield the facile pen and the purple pencil, for his trespass on their field, on the plea that he has ‘worked with patience which is almost power’ and perhaps ‘done some excellent things, indifferently.’ his sole object is to give his own people and government a true perspective of the colony of the gambia, its value to the british empire, and, above all, a clear view of their obligations as a great nation, towards those who have been our loyal fellow-subjects for more than three centuries” [author’s preface].