The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce
Written by Himself, during a Residence in Abyssinia from the Years 1810–1819; Together with Mr Coffin's Account of his First Visit to Gondar

This 1831 two-volume autobiographical account is particularly interesting for its detailed information about the land and people of Ethiopia.

Nathaniel Pearce (Author), John James Halls (Edited by)

9781108074612, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 May 2014

364 pages
14 x 21.7 x 2.5 cm, 0.5 kg

Nathaniel Pearce (1779–1820) was, according to J. J. Halls, who edited and published his autobiographical writings in 1831, 'one of those remarkable and adventurous beings, whom Nature … seems to take delight in creating'. Having run away to sea twice, deserted from the navy, accidentally killed a man, and briefly converted to Islam, he came into his own as a guide and factotum to British travellers in Egypt. He accompanied Henry Salt's 1805 mission to Abyssinia, where he married a local girl and served the ruler of Tigré until the latter's death in 1816. Pearce's humorous account of his life is particularly interesting in the details it gives of the land and people of Ethiopia, then little known by Europeans. In Volume 2, the situation in Abyssinia becomes dangerous and Pearce decides to escape down the Nile. The journal ends abruptly in 1819, a year before his death.

11. Military character of the Abyssinians
12. Buildings undertaken by the Ras
13. Disturbances excited by the Abuna
14. Civil war among the chiefs for the dignity of the Ras
15. Pearce receives a box from Mr salt
16. Pearce goes to the camp of the Gas Ischias
17. Proceedings of the Gas Ischias
18. Fray at a 'marver'
19. Triumph of the Abuna
20. Disturbed state of the country
21. Pearce resolves to leave Abyssinia
22. Voyage from Rabak to Suez
Appendix.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]