8vo. xlviii, [1], 406 pp., half-title, 15 steel engraved plates including a frontispiece, 1 large folding map by S Jacobs, numerous tables, copy with wide margins, publisher’s original wrappers, soiled & worn round edges, spine professionally repaired, scattered spotting, Arthus Bertrand, Paris, first edition, 1846.

Synopsis

A report by the author of his second journey to Abyssinia from 1842-1845.
This book is considered a landmark in the history of geographical discoveries after the discovery of the New World. It appeared during the intensive French-British rivalry to control the navigation in and from the Red Sea. During the period from 1830 end 1848, the French and their alliance with Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt gained the upper hand in Syria after the Egyptian campaign there, and at the same time they started since 1830 to draw maps of the Red Sea coasts, and they sent their travellers and officers to the Arabian Peninsula, such as Tamisier, Galinier, and Rochet d’Hericourt.
Rochet d’Hericourt visited Abyssinia for the second time in 1843, crossing through Al-Qassim Jeddah, Houdeida and Mokha. He describes in details the situation in Arabia, and later he presented the results of his explorations to the Societe Geographique in Paris. (for more details regarding the circumstances surrounding Rochet d’Hericourt’s travels.
Bibliographic references: Chadenat 682; Gay 115; Brunet 20588; See ”A La decouverte de l’Arabie” by Jacqueline Pirenne , Paris 1858.