HARRIS, W. Cornwallis.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Highlands of Aethiopia. First edition, in the attractive original cloth, of Harris's diplomatic mission to Shoa, an autonomous kingdom within Abyssinia. Czech calls this work an "epic of travel and exploration". Harris (1807-1848) served as an engineering officer in the Bombay Army when he was sent to establish trade relations with Sahle Selassie, king of Shoa, in 1841. He returned to England with a commercial treaty in 1843. The kingdom was then almost entirely unknown to outsiders. "The journey through the hinterland of the country is described in great detail, as are the cultures of the various cities that were visited. There are two sporting incidents of note with a huge buffalo bagged near the Casam River and elephant taken in Galla country" (Czech).His published account contains an example of the pioneering chromolithographic method of Charles Hullmandel, who had introduced the technique to Britain with four illustrations for George Hoskins's Travels in Ethiopia (1835). Provenance: ownership inscription and wax seal book label of Reverend Thomas Pyne on front pastedowns. Pyne (1801-1873), an Anglican clergyman, served as chief tutor, advisor, and guide for the two Ghanian princes, Owusu-Ansa, son of Nana Osei Bonsu, king of the Asante, and his cousin, Nkwantabisa. The princes had been hostages under the 1831 Maclean Treaty between the Asante and the British government. They moved to London in 1836, returning to Cape Coast in 1841 with the Niger Expedition. Pyne's ex

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