ABEOKUTA AND THE CAMAROONS MOUNTAINS. An Exploration by Burton Richard F - 1863

London: Tinsley Brothers, 1863. 2 volumes. First edition. With a paste-down frontispiece and three other plates, folding map. 8vo, in a contemporary style binding of three-quarter tan calf and marbled boards, gilt raised bands, red morocco lettering labels gilt, volume numbers gilt within compartments. xvi, 333; v, 306. A very clean and handsome copy, only lightly mellowed internally. QUITE SCARCE. After exploring in India, making the pilgrimage to Mecca, making the journey to the forbidden city of Harrar, exploring central Africa for the source of the Nile, and after crossing the American continent, Burton was granted, to his chagrin, the post of consul at Fernando Po off the West African coast--"the white man's grave." Upon the acceptance of this position, moreover, he was stripped of his commission as an officer in the Indian army.
He had no intention, however, of mouldering in his new and relatively unwelcome position. Having been in Fernando Po for just over a month, Burton set out for the coast and travelled inland to visit the native chief in Abeokuta, the capital of Nigeria, and to obtain his mark on a treaty, and two months later he led a small expedition to climb the still unscaled Mt. Victoria in the Cameroon mountains. This is the record of those two journeys.