DU CHAILLU, Paul

Travel and adventures in equatorial Africa. Habits and customs of the inhabitants; gorilla, crocodile, leopard, elephant, hippopotamus hunts, etc. Paris, Michel Lévy frères, 1863. In-4 (268 x 184 mm) of 2 ff.n.ch., VIII, 546 pp., 27 plates out of text (including the frontispiece, 1 folding map. Green half-chagrin, spine ornate, spotted edges (contemporary binding). Thiébaud, 293 (erroneous collation of the plates); Numa-Broc, 71-72. First edition. "Paul du Chaillu (1837-1903) is among the inspirers of Brazza in Gabon. American, but of French origin, he undertook in 1856 to search for access routes to the Congo, from the estuaries and inlets of the coast. He first explored the Rio Muni basin crossing the first ranges of the Crystal Mountains, beyond which the coastal natives refused to venture. Well received by the M'Fan, repulsed by the Ostréba, he returned to Gabon via the bay of Corisco (1856). In 1857, after leaving the Fernan Vaz lagoon, du Chaillu reached the Ngounié basin and heard the natives speak for the first time of a great river, Ogobaï or Ogowai, which geographers called Ogooué... More interested in the customs of the Pygmies, the remains of gorillas and other beautiful hunting trophies than in the arid details of geography, Du Chaillu published in 1863 an account which earned him in 1868 a silver medal from the Geographical Society" (Numa-Broc). Thiébaud erroneously mentions 28 plates; the edition does include 27 plates, and a large folding map. Upper spine cracked, otherwise a very good copy of the richly illustrated account.