First Footsteps in East Africa or, An Exploration of Harar
London: Tylston and Edwards, 1894.
Hardcover. Near fine. Memorial Edition. Two volumes, pp xxiv, 209; 276, [3], with four color plates, two maps, and additional illustrations in the text. Original black cloth stamped in gilt. Small, pales stain on front board of Vol. I, very light wear to extremities, some foxing to front and end matter; bindings sound, contents clean. A very attractive set. DNB: "Even as [Burton] completed the manuscript of his Personal Narrative [of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinh and Mecca]...he was planning the penetration of another forbidden city. This time his objective was Harar, an important religious centre and notorious base for the slave trade in Somalia. No European had ever entered Harar, and its inhabitants believed that should any Christian do so, the city would fall.... Burton sailed from Aden on 29 October 1854, disguised as a Turkish merchant. After some pleasant preparatory weeks in the town of Zayla on the Somali coast, he started for Harar. As he approached the city, however, he fell under suspicion of being a foreign spy. Reasoning that his Turkish identity would afford little protection from the amir of Harar, who was notorious for capriciously executing people or leaving them to languish in his dungeons, he decided to present himself as a British agent on a diplomatic mission, forging a letter to that effect, in hopes that the amir would be unwilling to offend the British government. On 3 January 1855 he entered Harar. The amir received him courteously, although Burton spent an uneasy ten days in the city before being allowed to depart."
Item #17506
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