8vo. Half-title, 2 engraved maps, 4 chromolithographic plates. (Some marginal dampstaining to a few plates, light mostly marginal toning, a few short tears not affecting text.) Original red cloth decorated in blind, spine gilt-lettered, uncut (soiled, some wear, hinges starting).

FIRST EDITION, second issue, without the suppressed fourth appendix present in the first issue. In 1849, the East India Company supported an exploration program to present-day Somalia. Burton's first African expedition began in 1854 when he set out from Aden disguised as an Arab merchant to cross the desert to Harar, a closed city never opened to foreigners. Speke accompanied him on the journey, and their differing accounts of the true source of the Nile River ignited a controversy between the two. Appendices include Speke's diary of his African journey, Hearne's meteorological observations, and a description of Cornwallis's 1841 attempt to enter Harrar. Abbey Travel 276; Penzer, pp. 60-63; Spink 16.