SKERTCHLY, J. ALFRED: - Dahomey as it is; being a Narrative of Eight Months' Residence in that Country, ... Also an Appendix on Ashantee. London, Chapman and Hall, 1874.

. Pp. xxii, 524. With a coloured lithographed frontispiece, one folding map, eight lithographed full page plates (of which three coloured) and woodcut illustrations in the text. This copy has one additional coloured plate "The Gun Custom" not included in the list of illustrations. Publisher's pictorial cloth, stamped in gilt and black. Extremities slightly chipped, top of front hinge with small hole. First edition of a scarce title devoted to Dahomey (Benin today), its people and customs. The plates are made after sketches by the author. Skertchley was an English entomologist who participated in a zoological expedition to the West Coast of Africa in 1871. During a short visit to Abomey, the capital of Dahomey, he was captured (but shown great hospitality) by the king for eight months, during which he was unable to collect specimens. Some light offsetting to the title from the frontispiece, otherwise a crisp and clean copy. Cardinall 1102.