Burchell's 'Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa' (two-volume limited edition set)

Vol.1: viii+contents, list of plates (10) &map,vignettes (50),+582 pages,  folded map, on canvas (87 cms X 72 cms), " A Map of The Extratropical Part of Southern Africa constructed by J.Burchell Esq. in which his own nack is laid down entirely from the geographical & astronomical observations made during these travels & the remaining parts accommodated to it & formed mainly of new materials combined with others selected from various documents and wholly rearranged) on inside back, the last four pages are on " Hints on Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope".

 Vol.2: Contents, plates(10),vignettes (46), errata, 648 pages,, also detailed map (100 cms x 100 cms),,

.([H] 28 cms x [W] 23 cms x[D] 4 cms)

             The first edition of 1822 was limited to 500 copies.

 

Before coming to South Africa Burchell worked as a school teacher on the island of St Helena, where he lived from 1806 to 1810. He came directly to Cape Town from St Helena, arriving in November 1810, and his experiences between then and the time he went back to England in 1815 are related in a double-volume book that appeared in 1822 and 1824, entitled 'Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa' . To do the editing for Travels he went from Fulham to the countryside near Sevenoaks, where he produced the two volumes.

In November 1810, the thirty-year-old Englishman named William John Burchell landed in Cape Town after several years as a naturalist on St Helena island. The following year he embarked on an epic journey through the Cape Colony, lasting four years and covering 7000 kilometers, mainly through unexplored terrain. During this time he collected over 50 000 plant and animal specimens and built up a vast collection of sketches and paintings. He went on to travel in Brazil, and after many years back in Britain he took his own life at the age of eighty-two. Burchell’s Travels recreates the life and journeys of a remarkable explorer, naturalist, botanist, writer, artist, cartographer, ethnographer and linguist, who is best known for his two-volume Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, his extraordinary map of the country, and for the many species of animals, birds and plants that are named after him.

 ("Burchell's Travels: The Life, Art and Journeys of William John Burchell", Susan Buchanan)

“He was hugely impressed and deeply in love with South Africa. He was enthralled with the natural history and with the people. He got on extraordinarily well with the indigenous and the colonials here as well,”

Burchell’s books accompanied Charles Darwin on the second voyage of the survey barque, HMS Beagle, during which he started evolving his theories.

In 1819 Burchell appeared before a select committee of the British House of Commons on emigration to South Africa. The following year brought the 1820 settlers. (Dr Roger Stewart, representative of  the International Map Collectors’ Society in South Africa).

"…for judging of the character of these inhabitants, it is not enough to have mingled with the better part of society; the Boors must be heard, the Hottentots must be heard, and the slaves must be heard." (Burchell)

Following his European sojourn, Abu Talib's remarkable Shi'ite pilgrimage through present day Turkey and Iraq further enhances his meditation on the encounter between Islam and European modernity.(Broadview Press)

"  ‘The most valuable and accurate work on South Africa published up to the first quarter of the nineteenth century and embracing a description of a large part of the Cape Colony and Bechuanaland at this period. Theal (History of South Africa 1795-1834″) remarks that the author was “a man of talent an easy writer and scrupulously exact in his descriptions” and according to Sclater he was “a most skillful and well-trained zoologist and botanist and his observations are all accurate and methodical.” Burchell penetrated as far as “Lattakoo” (afterwards known as Kuruman) and during his explorations which extended over a period of four years made important collections of the fauna flora and curiosities of the country together with a large number of drawings. … The illustrations in the volumes are characterised by great beauty and accuracy and it is stated in the Preface that “in order to ensure greater correctness in the vignettes the author has made all these drawings upon the blocks themselves”  (Mendelssohn, volume one, p. 224)