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Folio (21 x 14 4/8 inches). Letter-press title-page, dedication to the Duke of Devonshire with his arms printed in gilt, two-page subscribers' list. Hand-colored additional lithographed title-page featuring the giant Victoria Regia waterlily, by M. Gauci after Charles Bentley, printed by P. Gauci (some marginal spotting), and 12 fine hand-colored lithographed views by George Barnard, Coke Smyth and P. Gauci after Charles Bentley, printed by Gauci and Charles Hullmandel, engraved map with Schomburgk's journey marked in red (some light mostly marginal spotting, edge of additional title-page and one other plate very slightly frayed), 12 wood-engraved illustrations by G. P. Nicholls after Charles Blunt, the views all after original sketches by John Morrison, one engraved map by John Murray, hand-colored in outline in red and blue. Contemporary half green morocco, gilt, marbled paper boards, green morocco lettering-piece in the centre of the front cover (boards a bit scuffed). Provenance: Inscribed to "James Rothwell Esqr, Commander of the Cleopatra, as a token of acknowledgement for his kind attention during a passage across the Atlantic in January 1841. From Robert H. Schomburgk" A PRESENTATION COPY of the first edition, published at 2/12/6d uncolored and 4 guineas colored. Under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society Schomburgk explored the Essequibo, Corentyn, Orinoc, and Berbice rivers in equatorial America during 1835-1839, becoming the first European to reach the sources of the Essequibo. During his explorations he built on the observations of his fellow countryman, Humboldt, which enabled him to determine astronomically fixed points across the watershed of these great rivers. In 1837 he discovered and sent back to England the giant water lily "Victoria regia" now named "Victoria amazonica". As a result the RGS awarded him a Gold medal in 1840. "On his return to Europe, Schomburgk represented to the British government the necessity of settling the actual boundary of British Guiana, for commercial and humanitarian reasons. He had witnessed the forcible abduction by Brazilians of Amerindians from what he later declared to be British territory and wished to ensure the native peoples' safety from such practice. In April 1840 he was appointed a commissioner for surveying and marking out the boundaries of the colony, and before returning to South America he wrote A Description of British Guiana, Geographical and Statistical (1840), which was in its original form a report to the Colonial Office and is the first detailed account of the colony. For more popular consumption he published by subscription Twelve Views in the Interior of Guiana (1841), and two volumes in The Naturalist's Library (ed. W. Jardine) entitled The Fishes of Guiana (1841 3). "Schomburgk returned to British Guiana in 1841 and began by marking the line on the north-west with Venezuela. During 1841 3 he extended his survey southward, making Pirara his headquarters, and finishing by a journey thence overland to the headwaters of the Corentyn, down which river he descended to Demerara (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 15, 1845, 1 104). Some of his journeys were made under extremely arduous conditions and would be as difficult to complete today as when Schomburgk undertook them. His delimitation proposals, known as the Schomburgk line , subsequently became famous during the prolonged boundary disputes between British Guiana and the neighbouring countries of Brazil and Venezuela. This line formed the basis of negotiations until the frontier with Venezuela was settled by arbitration in 1899 and that with Brazil in 1904, and then proved decisive in the final delineation of the boundaries. "On Schomburgk's return to England he was knighted by patent on 26 December 1844" (G. C. Boase, rev. Peter Rivière for DNB). Abbey Travel, 720; Sabin 77796. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.
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