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Library stamps/marks/labels/pocket residue, both hinges started, chipping to spine tail, edgewear, light tone, otherwise light wear. Still solid hardcover.; Probable First Edition, First Printing with November, 1879 publisher's catalog in rear. Third in a series of Victorian era travel accounts by Frederick Boyle, an English author, journalist, barrister, and orchid fancier. "The No-Man's Land of which I treat in these pages is not bounded by parallels of latitude. It is the vague realm where human passions work, where the possibilities of life are undefined, so that no one can authoritatively distinguish "What might have been" from "What is." This No-Man's Land is discovered on all the four continents, in Europe as in Africa, and I have used the privilege of the Conquistador in shaping its ideal boundary as I please. The conscientious artist, however, will not go beyond the lines of truth, arrange them as he may, and of this I assure you, that there is no fact stated, no strange custom or distorted trick of thought, no tone of local colour, which has not come under my own observation, for which I am not prepared to give personal experience." - Dedication. Boyle offers a pot-pourri of travel encounters in marginal or war-torn areas: the Balkans during the Serbian War of Independence, South Africa during the Kaffir Wars, West Africa's Ashanti, Sarawak under Brooke, even vigilantes in Montana. Boyle's Chronicles highlight well-written human-interest descriptions of everyday suffering, turmoil and warfare in the margins. ; Ex-Library; vi, 290, (4)+32 ad pages. Seller Inventory # 15528
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