EXPLORATIONS AND ADVENTURES IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA. With Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the Chace of the Gorilla, Crocodile, Leopard, Elephant, Hippopotamus, and Other Animals

London: John Murray, 1861. First edition. With 73 black and white illustrations, including a folding frontispiece of a gorilla (the first ever of the animal) and a folding map at the rear. 8vo, in a beautiful binding of full polished natural calf, the spine with compartments decorated with fully gilt panel designs, one compartment with a red morocco lettering piece gilt. xviii, 479 pp. A very bright and uncommonly fresh copy, much nicer then is typically found, internally a very fresh clean copy virtually free of any spotting, the folding map and folding gorilla plate in excellent order. RARE FIRST EDITION IN THE FINE POLISHED CALF BINDING . It was on this expedition that Du Chaillu confirmed the existence of that "monstrous and ferocious ape, the gorilla." His work is one of the seminal pieces of early Central African exploration. Copies of this, his most important work are especially elusive now in such handsome condition. Du Chaillu’s travels to Equatorial Africa were to an area previously unexplored by Europeans--the wooded region bordering the Equator, in the interior of Western Africa. It was on this journey that he was able to observe the habits of several remarkable species of animals found nowhere else and heretofore unknown. These included the gorilla, and Du Chaillu’s famous engraving was the first published illustration of this remarkable animal.