Report from the Select Committee on the West Coast of Africa; Together with the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index.
[London]: Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 1842. 1st ed. Hardcover. 2 vols. 4 folding maps (3 in Part I and one in Part II, xxvi, 744, 637p. Contemporary 1/2 leather with marbled boards. Covers intact but rather heavily scuffed and rubbed. Bookplates removed on both front pastedowns. Contents generally sound and clean although the large folding map of the coast of West Africa in Part (Volume) II is fragile. That map had split apart along many of the original folds and elsewhere. While it had been carefully put back together, it needs careful handling when folding or unfolding to keep nthe map intact. These volumes contain a wealth of material about British trade and administrative activities in Gambia, Sierra Leone and Gold Coast, the three areas of particular British interest and control in West Africa at that time -- Lagos and other pieces of what is now modern Nigeria were still outside British influence and control in 1842 and Benin hadn't yet been grabbed by Germany before passing to Great Britain after World War I. These volumes also contain quite a bit of information about British efforts to suppress and end the slave trade. Good (because of fragile repaired map). Item #91013
Price: $1,750.00