BIGG-WITHER, Thomas Plantaganet.

Pioneering in South Brazil. Three years of forest and prairie life in the province of Paraná.

London, John Murray, 1878. 2 vols, 8vo, pp. xiii, [iii], 378; [iii]–x, [ii], 328, with six plates (one folding) and a folding map (protruding slightly at fore-edge); illustrations in the text; no half-title in vol. II; contemporary maroon half morocco; joints and corners rubbed. First edition, a presentation copy: tipped in is an autograph letter of presentation, signed and dated 4 February 1878, from the author to the secretary of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Also present are the Institute’s library stamps (on verso of titles and on p. 101 of each volume) and bookplates (with release stamps). Bigg-Wither was head of a group of engineers working on one of the surveys for the proposed railway which would cross South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. ‘The book he wrote, written in a fluent and picturesque style, is of great interest and full of excellent observations about the colonial region and the ‘sertão’ of Paraná. It is certainly one of the best travel books about that part of Brazil’ (Borba de Moraes).Borba de Moraes p. 106; Naylor 286; Palau 376106.

• GBP 375.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: T1822

• bookseller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)