Unrecorded description of Madagascar, printed at Antananarivo

George Andrew Shaw (1842-1917).

From Fianarantsoa to Mananjara : being notes of a journey made on behalf of the London Missionary.

Antananarivo, printed by A. Kingdon, mission printer to the Friends’ Foreign Mission Association, 1874.

12°. 11, [1 blank] pp.

Later half morocco with marbled sides and gilt lettering on spine.

Only known copy of a British missionary’s account of his foot journey through Madagascar. The author, George Andrew Shaw (1842-1917), was an English missionary stationed at Tamatave, Madagascar. In the present work he describes in detail the sights and surroundings, the various churches and stations, as well as the way of life of the local inhabitants that he encountered along his foot journey.
This is his first published work. After he returned to England he wrote four more books on the African Island where he was stationed for many years, making him an authority on the subject: Madagascar: the Ibara tribes (London, Missionary Society, 1876). Fauna and flora of Madagascar (London, The Religious Tract Society, 1885). Madagascar and France, with some account of the island, its people, its resources and development (London, The Religious Tract Society, 1885); Madagascar of to-day: an account of the island, its people, resources and development (London, Religious Tract Society, 1886).
Christian missionaries were largely responsible for the early development of printing in Africa in the nineteenth century, primarily producing works that benefitted the converting of local people. In 1828 the first book was printed in Madagascar by the London Missionary Society, to which George Andrew Shaw also belonged. The Friend’s Foreign Mission Association also published the Gazety Malagasy between 1875 and 1876. All Madagascar missionary imprints are extremely scarce. Sibree lists 6 titles by Shaw in his Madagascar Bibliography, but not the present work.

In very good condition.

Literature: Carol Holden, Early printing from Africa in the British Library, in: Electronic British Library Journal, 1997. Not in Samuel Macauley Jackson, Bibliography of Foreign Missions, 1891; Sibree, A Madagascar Bibliography, 1885; also not in: BL; KVK; Munsell Bliss, RBH; WorldCat.