First edition of "one of the most interesting of the Dutch 19th century books on West Africa" (Bulletin d'information) by the Dutch military physician Jan Simon Gerardus Gramberg (1823-1888). Gramberg arrived at Fort Saint George in Elmina (São Jorge da Mina) in 1856, where he explored the coast and inlands of the Gold Coast. Later he founded a cotton plantation on the Bossum-prah (Pra) river in present-day Ghana. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part Gramberg gives a concise description of West Africa: its history (with remarks on the Spanish and Portuguese properties there) climate, geology, religion, education, flora, fauna etc. As a physician, Gramberg included some interesting information on common diseases in the area. The second part contains Gramberg's own travelogue, in which he gives descriptions of Elmina, Cape Coast, Accra, Ouidah and other places, with an illustration of a trading post and Gramberg's own plantation, and finally a part on the Dutch properties in West Africa. The chromolithographed plates depict native inhabitants and several forts.
With an owner's inscription on the back of the frontispiece. Like many copies, this one does not include the 3-page list of subscribers ("Naamlijst van inteekenaren") following the title-page. Slightly foxed. Binding rubbed along the extremities and slightly damaged at the head and foot of the spine. Overall in good condition. Bobins coll. 96; Bulletin d'information III (1977), p. 30; Cat. NHSM I, p. 206; Landwehr, Coloured plates 287; Tiele, Bibl. 409; not in Gay; Kainbacher.