Mad White Giant; A Journey to the Heart of the Amazon Jungle

8vo [22 x 14 cm]; x, 249 pp, illustrations from photos, plus illustrations from author's drwgs, map endpapers. original cloth, gilt lettering on spine, dj (not price clipped), light page browning in some outer margins, else fine and clean. A picture of this book is available upon request by email. The author, aged 24 at the time, travelled alone through the lands between the Orinoco and the Amazon, learning from the Indians who adopted him how to survive in the jungle. The Indians put him to the test to prove his worth as an 'Indian', and eventually accepted him to the point of the chief offering him the village's prize daughter. He escaped from an attempt to kill him by unscrupulous miners and made his way alone for a month without provisions in the uninhabited jungle. This is the author's first book, a classic of adventure but also a good description of the jungle and the peoples and the threats to them from 'civilization'. 'A raw, visceral account of blundering across the Amazon' [Hiugh Thomsonm, explorer and travel writer, rateed it as his number one choice, in Geographical ].