New Guinea: What I Did and What I Saw
- Hardcover
- Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1881
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1881. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardcover. Second edition. Luigi Maria D'Albertis (1841 - 1901) was an Italian explorer, natural historian and ethnographic collector, who visited New Guinea several times beginning in 1870. He had a reputation for being unscrupulous and was charged with murder after his last expedition; although, he was acquitted (Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation). According to accounts made by his servants and crew (which were accused by D'Albertis of mutiny and theft), and colleagues - during his expeditions he murdered many native peoples (unprovoked), murdered his own Chinese servants for refusing to follow his orders, stole ancestral remains and religious artifacts from natives, used dynamite to obtain aquatic specimens, and committed other savage acts. This first person account of his explorations contradicts many of these accusations and is more humanizing than these accounts would suggest possible.
In these volumes D'Albertis describes paying natives well for food and goods and reacting reasonably to signs of native hostilities. He describes flora, fauna, and natives with a kindness uncharacteristic of the time period and attention to detail. He recounts his despair after losing his pet dog to poison and losing well-loved snakes and other animals collected during his journey. He ends Volume I stating: "I am also convinced that, if well treated and guided, this people (natives of New Guinea) would repay any sacrifices made for them with interest. To ensure success, however, they should be treated as friends, not as slaves; they should be cherished, not destroyed." The second volume ends with D'Albertis describing an attack by natives and later records his defense against charges of the murder of his servants. An interesting, well-written, and thoughtful travelogue.
Includes four chromolithographs, many in text black and white illustrations, and one folding map to the rear of Volume II. Also includes a summery of observations; vocabulary of people of the Yule Island, Mansinam and Hatam, Yorke Island, and Moatta; notes on plants collected; and catalogues of plants and birds collected in 1875 - 1877. Bound in three quarter tan calf over marbled paper covered boards with black and gilt leather title and volume labels to spines. Matching marbled endpapers with full edges in red. Wear, cracking, and pulling to leather on spine and corners and rubbing to boards. Penned gift inscriptions dated 1881 to both volumes on front free endpapers. Occasional spots of foxing to both volumes, including map. Browning from glue to edges of tissue guards; although, some tissue guards are no longer present. Closed tears to edges of some pages including the folding map. Bindings remain strong; however, there are several internal splits between signatures in both volumes. Volume I, 424 pages; Volume II, 406 pages. SOPAC/062325.
In these volumes D'Albertis describes paying natives well for food and goods and reacting reasonably to signs of native hostilities. He describes flora, fauna, and natives with a kindness uncharacteristic of the time period and attention to detail. He recounts his despair after losing his pet dog to poison and losing well-loved snakes and other animals collected during his journey. He ends Volume I stating: "I am also convinced that, if well treated and guided, this people (natives of New Guinea) would repay any sacrifices made for them with interest. To ensure success, however, they should be treated as friends, not as slaves; they should be cherished, not destroyed." The second volume ends with D'Albertis describing an attack by natives and later records his defense against charges of the murder of his servants. An interesting, well-written, and thoughtful travelogue.
Includes four chromolithographs, many in text black and white illustrations, and one folding map to the rear of Volume II. Also includes a summery of observations; vocabulary of people of the Yule Island, Mansinam and Hatam, Yorke Island, and Moatta; notes on plants collected; and catalogues of plants and birds collected in 1875 - 1877. Bound in three quarter tan calf over marbled paper covered boards with black and gilt leather title and volume labels to spines. Matching marbled endpapers with full edges in red. Wear, cracking, and pulling to leather on spine and corners and rubbing to boards. Penned gift inscriptions dated 1881 to both volumes on front free endpapers. Occasional spots of foxing to both volumes, including map. Browning from glue to edges of tissue guards; although, some tissue guards are no longer present. Closed tears to edges of some pages including the folding map. Bindings remain strong; however, there are several internal splits between signatures in both volumes. Volume I, 424 pages; Volume II, 406 pages. SOPAC/062325.