(London: Tinsley Brothers, 1863).

SUCH WELL PRESERVED COPIES ARE SCARCE IN CLOTH AND COPIES IN THE MOST RARE BINDING STATE ARE NEAR UNOBTAINABLE. According to Penzer, Burton intended to suppress his name entirely from this work, and our copy has neither Burton nor F.R.G.S. on the spine panel. The rarest of the bindings, as ours here, has the suppression successfully made. And this is a very handsome and well preserved copy of this fragile book. THE SPINK CATALOGUE OF 1976 PRICED A COPY OF THIS ISSUE IN THE SAME BINDING, HIGHER THAN ANY OTHER COPY OF ANY EDITION OF THE TITLE. (Spink 28, 29, 30)
Burton was appointed consul at Fernando Po in 1861 and he used his post to explore the contiguous areas of Nigeria and Sierra Leone, as well as Madeira and Tenerife. Fascinated by the high incidence of European mortality in West Africa, he believed it possible to render the region "not more unhealthy than the East or West Indies."
Burton s publication of the book anonymously as a  Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society ( F.R.G.S)  may have been a slap at the Royal Geographical Society , for Burton was at odds with the organization s leadership at the time over the Nile s sources. The acerbic dedication was  to the true friends of Africa- not the  Philanthropist or Exeter Hall .
Modern gold-mining in West Africa can be directly linked to this work.  Although it was well known that there was gold on the Gold Coast, nothing was done to develop it, and it was Burton who, in his  Wanderings in West Africa , drew public attention again to this ancient gold-field. Item #21914

2 volumes.  Second Edition , but most likely the  First Edition with the new slug added to the title pages for marketing and advertising purposes. With a folding map in Vol. I and frontispiece plate in Vol. II. 8vo, publisher s original terra-cotta cloth lettered and ruled in gilt on the spines, with blind ruled borders on covers and central devices blocked in blind, top edges untrimmed. ACCORDING TO PENZER, THIS COPY IN THE MOST RARE BINDING STATE WITHOUT BURTON S NAME OR F.R.G.S. TO THE SPINE PANELS. x, 303; vi, 295. A very handsome set, clean and very well preserved, text-block in each volume tight and crisp, hinges sound, light evidence of age to the extremities.