Notes of a Voyage from New South Wales to the North Coast of Australia, from the Journal of the late Francis Napier
[Glasgow, Privately Printed, 1876].
Octavo, 96 pages with 3 small illustrations (on pages 17 and 32) and a full-page map (on page 70) plus 8 full-page lithographs, 4 folding maps and a mounted frontispiece portrait of Francis Napier (an original Woodburytype, 97 × 70 mm).
Gilt-blocked green cloth lightly marked and rubbed; three folding maps a little creased (two with a couple of short closed tears, and one with slight marginal loss near a fold); minimal signs of age and use, but overall an excellent copy.
'In 1867 the South Australian Government sent an expedition under Francis Cadell to examine the north coast of the Northern Territory to seek suitable sites for settlement. The most important result of this expedition was the discovery of the entrance to the Roper River. Cadell's report on the expedition was published in the South Australian Parliamentary Papers for 1867. The only Public account was that written by Francis Napier. Napier died in 1875 and his brother James published this book on the basis of his journal and papers ... Many of the copies which survive bear an inscription from a member of the Napier family' (Wantrup, page 171). This copy has the signature of Lawrence T. Napier on the verso of the title page. Provenance: R.S. Fox, with his pictorial bookplate on the front pastedown. Ferguson 13058; Wantrup 102.
Item #140289
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