Labat (Jean-Baptiste). Nouvelle relation de l'Afrique occidentale: contentant une description exacte du Sénégal et des païs situés entre le Cap-Blanc et la rivière de Serrelionne, jusqu'à plus de 300 lieuës ena avant dans les terres. L'histoire naturelle de ces païs, les differentes nations qui y sont répanduës, leurs religions et leur mÂœurs, 1st edition, Paris: Pierre-François Giffart, 1728. 5 volumes, duodecimo (162 x 92 mm), contemporary mottled calf (rebacked at an early date, slightly rubbed, tips worn), [2] xvii [7] 346, [2] ii ii 376, [2] 387, [6] 392, [6] 404 pp., 78 engraved maps, plans and other plates (mainly folding), 2 folding tables (volume 2 pp. 361/2 and 363/4), toning, occasional browning, variable damp-staining (mainly to margins), a few short closed handling-tears to folding maps, volume 1 leaf E12 with marginal excision, volume 2 leaf D9 with small hole in text, volume 3 contents leaf misbound to front of volume 2, together with 2 similar works (Vertot, Histoire des Chevaliers hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jerusalem, appelés ... audjourd'hui chevaliers de Malthe, 7 volumes, nouvelle édition, Paris: Guillyn, 1761, and Mentelle, Anecdotes orientales, 2 volumes, 1st edition, 1773, both in contemporary marbled calf similarly rebacked, not collated) (qty: 14) Jean-Baptiste Labat (1663-1738) was a Dominican missionary and naturalist also known for his monumental Nouveau voyage aux iles de l'Amérique (1722), a record of fifteen years spent in the West Indies, during which time he founded the Basse-Terre colony and armed the island's slaves to fight against the English. The plates in the present work are of zoological, botanical and ethnographic interest. Provenance (all titles): George Wilbraham (1779-1852), Whig politician, of Delamere House, Northwich, Cheshire (with his personal and Delamere House bookplates).