Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar
Performed in HM Ships Leven and Barracouta

First published in 1833, this two-volume account documents naval officer William Fitzwilliam Owen's expedition to Africa, Arabia and Madagascar.

William Fitzwilliam Owen (Author), Heaton Bowstead Robinson (Edited by)

9781108050647, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 July 2012

444 pages, 3 b/w illus. 2 maps
21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.56 kg

William Fitzwilliam Owen (1774–1857) was a British naval officer. Between 1821 and 1826 he commanded an expedition to Africa, Arabia and Madagascar with the Royal Navy ships Leven and Barracouta, during which he mapped some 30,000 miles of coastline. His memoirs of the voyage are presented in this two-volume account, first published in 1833. Volume 2 continues to describe the rituals of the native peoples whom Owen's crew encountered - and who were at times hostile - and the tragic deaths on board the ships from tropical diseases, which with better planning might have been avoided. The volume also covers the lives of colonists and missionaries, the slave trade, and the spread of European influence across Africa and its neighbouring lands. Providing a vivid account of African exploration in the nineteenth century, Owen's writings remain of great interest to geographers, historians and anthropologists.

1. Quit Zanzibar
2. Querimba Islands
3. Leave the Barracouta
4. Harbour of Tamatave
5. The Senna expedition
6. Town of Senna
7. A priest's extortion
8. Sandy island
9. Coast of Madagascar
10. Radama
11. Interview with Radama
12. Commerce
13. The funeral
14. The Seychelles islands
15. A massacre
16. Leave the Seychelles
17. Join the 'Albatross'
18. A boy sold
19. Kidnapped seamen
20. A native king's son
21. Bijooga islands
22. Captain Vidal's proceedings
23. Population and commerce
24. Scenery in Kabenda bay
25. People of Cape Lopez
25a. Corisco bay
26. Fernando Po
27. Intended visit to King Peppel
28. Rivers between Cape Formosa and the Bonny
29. Survey of the Gambia
Appendix.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]