Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar

First published in 1833, this two-volume account documents the 1821–6 expedition of naval officer William Fitzwilliam Owen (1774–1857) to Africa and its neighbouring lands. In Volume 2, Owen describes colonial life, native rituals, missionaries, slavery and the virulent tropical illnesses to which many of his crew succumbed.

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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.