A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, towards the Antarctic Polar Circle, and Round the World; but chiefly into the Country of the Hottentots and Caffres, from the year 1772 to 1776

Pp. xxvii, 368, 2 full page copper-engraved monochrome plates of Hottentot ornaments and arms, 1 large triple-folding copper-engraved map of the southern coast of Africa; pp. viii, 350, (2, errata), 9 full page copper-engraved monochrome plates illustrating South African antelopes, hartebeest, buffalo, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, spring-bok, and more. Later one-quarter brown leather, spine with five raised bands lettered in gilt in three compartments, over tan cloth boards, 4to. Translated from the first Swedish edition of 1783, this is the first edition in English. Andrew Sparrman, professor of Zoology at Uppsala University, was trained as a physician and naturalist specializing in botany. “On his arrival at the Cape on January10, 1772, he had only the small sum of money in his possession, but the kindness of his reception and the hospitality of the colonists enabled him to pursue his researches and his expenses on his short expeditions were defrayed by the Swedish East India Company. At the end of the year, the English Exploring Expedition under Captain Cook visited Table Bay, and Sparrman was invited to accompany it and he sailed in the Resolution on November 22, 1772. He did not return to South Africa until March 1775, when he determined to make an expedition into the interior with a friend named Immelman, and they made a start on July 25, the journey being extended to April, 1776. They penetrated through Kaffararia as far as ‘Bruntjes Hoogte,’ and the narrative of their travels is insightful and instructive. Sparrman died at Stockholm in 1820 at the age of 73; his work, originally written in Swedish, was translated and published in French, English and German (Mendelssohn, vol. 2, pp. 414-5). Armorial bookplate of James Hamilton Russell on front paste-down, with his motto: “che sara sara” below the armorial crest; also Russell’s 12 mm high stamp of an antelope at bottom of the title page under the date. No other ownership marks and few signs of use.