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Denham's Travels by Dixon Denham & Hugh Clapperton

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Denham's Travels by Dixon Denham & Hugh Clapperton
Included in this lot is "Denham's Travels" by Major Dixon Denham and Captain Hugh Clapperton. The full title of this book is "Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, In the Years 1822, 1823, and 1824, By Major Denham, Captain Clapperton, and the Late Doctor Oudney, Extending Acorss the Great Desert to the Tenth Degree of Northern Latitude, and from Kouka in Bornou, to Sackatoo, the Capital of the Fellath Empire." The book also includes an appendix and was "published by authority of the right honourable Earl Bathurst, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, and dedicated by permission to his Lordship, by Major Dixon Denham, of his Majesty's 17th Regiment of Foot, and Captain Hugh Clapperton, of the Royal Navy, the survivors of the expedition." By the end of 1821, Denham joined Oudney and Clapperton at Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast of Libya. Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney made a southward crossing of the Sahara and in February 1823 they became the first Europeans to see Lake Chad. While Clapperton went south and west in an attempt to reach Timbuktu, Denham explored to the southeast, examining the Chari River, the principal source of Lake Chad. After exploring the Waube and Logone rivers as well, Denham rejoined Clapperton at a settlement south of Lake Chad; the two made their way northward back to Tripoli. Oudney, in the meantime, had died of tropical fever. Denham, with Clapperton and Oudney, undertook some of the earliest official British explorations into the interior of West Africa. The book is in fair condition, with some wear and scratches to the cover and spine. The book measures 11" by 9".