1863 Burton - ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN

Title: An Account of an Exploration of the Elephant Mountain, in Western Equatorial Africa.

Author: BURTON, Sir Richard Francis
Publisher: London: Royal Geographical Society, 1863

Notes & Condition: 10 pages. These are original text pages printed in 1863, in excellent condition. Attractively bound in period style brown cloth over marbled boards, titled in gilt. A Scarce Burton item, this is a succinct and exciting chronicle by the intrepid explorer, on his exploration of the ever mysterious Elephant Mountain, in the Batonga (Tonga) Country of Western Equatorial Africa. While consul (1861-1865) at Fernando Po, Burton went off to West Africa, explored the Bight of Biafra and conducted a mission to Dahomey, Benin, and the Gold Coast. Burton was also consul for the Bight of Biafra.

Excerpt from the text: "The country known to us by the names of Batonga or Banoko - properly the names of important tribes - begins at the south shores of the innermost recess of the Bight of Biafra, and extends southward to Cape St. John: in this direction, the limit of the Consulate of Biafra... After visiting them in sundry places, I conjectured them to be the outlying range of the mysterious Sierra del Crystal, which may present the Western Ghauts of the African Peninsula. No traveller has yet crossed it. From inquiries among the natives, however, i believe it to be placed, as in East Africa, from 100 to 150 miles inland, and to be a primitive barren range; whereas all its outliers, between the main chain and sea, are densely wooded to their summits. The most remarkable of these subranges is the 'Elephant Mountaub,' which is clearly distinguishable from the roadstead, bearing south-east, and distant apparently 10 miles..." End Excerpt.