* BURTON, Richard Francis, Sir (1821-1890). First Footsteps in East Africa; or, An Exploration of Harar. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1856.

8vo (216 x 137 mm). Two maps, 4 colored lithographic plates; half-title. (A few pale stains primarily to outer margin.) Modern half brown morocco gilt, marbled boards.

FIRST EDITION, second issue, without the suppressed fourth appendix included in the first issue. In 1849, the East India Company supported an exploration program to present-day Somalia. By 1854, the program was largely abandoned, but was revived by Burton to become his first African expedition. That year, he set out from Aden disguised as an Arab merchant to cross the desert to Harar, a closed city never opened to foreigners. Speke accompanied him on the journey, and their differing accounts of the true source of the Nile River ignited a controversy between the two. Appendicies include Speke's diary of his African journey, Hearne's meterological observations, and a description of Cornwallis's 1841 attempt to enter Harrar. Penzer p. 60-63; Casada 35; Spink 16.