Burchell’s African Odyssey: Retracing the Retu Jouey 1812–1815

by: Roger Stewart (Author),Marion Whitehead(Author)

Publisher: Struik Nature

Publication Date: 2 Feb. 2023

Language: English

Print Length: 240 pages

ISBN-10: 1775848159

ISBN-13: 9781775848158

Book Description

In November 1810, a 29-year-old English botanist and skilled horticulturalist named William John Burchell landed in Cape Town on his first visit to southe Africa. Despite never having traveled in an ox wagon, he commenced a four-year, 7,000 kilometer jouey over rough and inhospitable terrain in a custom-built oxen-drawn wagon in June 1811. By the time he retued to Cape Town in 1815, he had amassed a collection of 63,000 specimens of plants, bulbs, insects, reptiles, and mammals – many not previously documented for science – as well as a significant portfolio of paintings and illustrations.While his outbound jouey is well documented in his famous two-volume Travels in the Interior of Southe Africa, little is known about the roughly thirty-two months of his retu jouey between 1812 and 1815. This new book sets out to recreate the second leg of Burchell’s epic odyssey – from near Kuruman in the Northe Cape of South Africa, to the Easte Cape, and back along the southe Cape coast to Cape Town. Drawing on numerous published and primary sources, including Burchell’s letters, the authors have created a thought-provoking and beautifully illustrated account of one of the nineteenth century’s most brilliant explorers.Today his specimen collections, held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and at the University of Oxford, are still used by researchers, and his name lives on in the many animal and plant species named after him.This timely publication coincides with the bicentenary of Burchell’s first volume of his Travels in the Interior of Southe Africa.
In November 1810, a 29-year-old English botanist and skilled horticulturalist named William John Burchell landed in Cape Town on his first visit to southe Africa. Despite never having traveled in an ox wagon, he commenced a four-year, 7,000 kilometer jouey over rough and inhospitable terrain in a custom-built oxen-drawn wagon in June 1811. By the time he retued to Cape Town in 1815, he had amassed a collection of 63,000 specimens of plants, bulbs, insects, reptiles, and mammals – many not previously documented for science – as well as a significant portfolio of paintings and illustrations.While his outbound jouey is well documented in his famous two-volume Travels in the Interior of Southe Africa, little is known about the roughly thirty-two months of his retu jouey between 1812 and 1815. This new book sets out to recreate the second leg of Burchell’s epic odyssey – from near Kuruman in the Northe Cape of South Africa, to the Easte Cape, and back along the southe Cape coast to Cape Town. Drawing on numerous published and primary sources, including Burchell’s letters, the authors have created a thought-provoking and beautifully illustrated account of one of the nineteenth century’s most brilliant explorers.Today his specimen collections, held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and at the University of Oxford, are still used by researchers, and his name lives on in the many animal and plant species named after him.This timely publication coincides with the bicentenary of Burchell’s first volume of his Travels in the Interior of Southe Africa.