between gorillas and unicorns
READE, William Winwood.
Savage Africa: being the narrative of a tour in Equatorial, south-western, and north-western Africa; with notes on the habits of the gorilla; on the existence of unicorns and tailed men; on the slave trade; on the origin, character, and capabilities of the negro and on the future civilization of western Africa.
London, Smith, Elder, and Co., 1863.
8vo, pp. xiv, [2], 587, [1]; with half-title, frontispiece, 8 plates, and 1 folding, linen-backed map at rear; some foxing and toning; good in contemporary half calf over pebbled cloth boards, marbled edges and endpapers; rebacked with remains of gilt spine laid down, corners worn; bookplate of John Dawson Mayne to front pastedown and inscription of Helen Mayne (his wife) to half-title.
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Savage Africa: being the narrative of a tour in Equatorial, south-western, and north-western Africa; with notes on the habits of the gorilla; on the existence of unicorns and tailed men; on the slave trade; on the origin, character, and capabilities of the negro and on the future civilization of western Africa.
First edition recounting an expedition through west Africa and along the west African coast by the British historian, philosopher, and explorer William Winwood Reade.
‘In 1862, possibly as a result of his failure as a novelist, [Reade] decided to depart for Africa, arriving in Gabon by steam-ship. From there he made his way down the Central African coast and after several months, during which he observed gorillas and speculated about unicorns and men with tails, he returned to England to publish his first travel narrative, Savage Africa. Although regarded as somewhat naïve and immature in its style, the book has some merit with regard to its anthropological content’ (Howgego IV, R8).
Despite Howgego’s somewhat lukewarm assessment, any work which ends a discussion of unicorns with the following words – ‘that such an animal has existed, there can I think, be little doubt: it is possible that he is extinct; but more probable that, flying from fire-arms … he has concealed himself in the vast forest-wastes of Central Africa which are uninhabited and unexplored’ (pp. 475-6) – can, nay must, be accorded more than ‘some merit’, even if this merit is unlikely to be of the scientific variety.
