BINGER, Louis Gustave, capitaine

From Niger to the Gulf of Guinea through the country of Kong and Mossi. Paris, librairie Hachette, 1892. 2 volumes in-4 (278 x 193 mm) with a portrait in frontispiece, 2 ff.n.ch., 513 pp., 1 f.n.ch. for volume I; 2 ff.n.ch., 411 pp. Numerous woodcut illustrations including 26 hors texte, 1 large folding map bound at the end of volume II. Chocolate half-chagrin with corners, spine ribbed and decorated, gilt head (period binding). Numa Broc, 27. First edition. Louis Gustave Binger (1856-1936) was charged in 1887 by the Ministries of the Navy and Foreign Affairs "to visit the countries of the mouth of the Niger which have not been seen since Caillié and Barth.... A model traveler, Binger accumulated a surprising amount of geographic, botanical, zoological, ethnographic, linguistic, commercial and political information" (Numa Broc). In 1892, Binger succeeded in uniting the territories of several tribes (Kong, Bondouki, Indénie, Djimi) and obtained during negotiations that these vast territories be attributed to France. He was nicknamed the anti-Stanley, "always striving to understand the local population and to sympathize with them" (Numa Broc). Nice copy, complete with the large map which is often missing.