Four Travel Journals; The Americas, Antarctica and Africa, 1775-1874

large 8vo [25.5 x 18 cm]; x, 404 pp, numerous illustrations including many full page, portraits, maps, bibliographies, index to each part, with the loose corrigenda (corrections) leaf, issued much after publication & usually absent. original cloth, gilt spine title lettering, gilt vignette on cover, dust jacket, fine, clean, unmarked, as new. A picture of this book is available upon request by email. Account of four previously unpublished travel journals, the first of a participant in a Spanish expedition, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Qyadra, from Mexico to explore the north-west coast of America. The second is The Journal of HMS Beagle in the Strait of Magellan by Pringle Stokes, Commander, 1827 which is supplemented by Captain King's account. The third is Journal of Midshipman Joseph Henry Kay during the voyage of HMS Chanticleer, 1828-31, commanded by Henry Foster, to make observations in the South Atlantic to determine the shape of the earth and to ascertain longitudes of certain ports, a lively diary with encounters with war ships of the Brazilian navy. The fourth is Jacob Wainwright's Diary of the Transportation of Dr Livingstone's Body to the Coast 1873-4, by the freed slave who carved the inscription on the tree beneath which Livingstone's heart was buried, and describes the journey back to the coast with the rest of the body, throwing much light on conditions in East Africa and on the story of Livingstone, published for the first time in English.