Der centralamerikanische Staat Nicaragua in bezug auf sein Volk, seine Natur und seine Denkmaeler. Nebst einer ausführlichen Abhandlung über den projectirten interoceanischen Kanal. [.] Ins Deutsche übertragen von Eduard Hoepfner und mit einem Vorworte begleitet von Carl Ritter.

8vo. XVIII, 570 pp. With 4 (2 folding) lithographed maps, 2 colour lithographed plates, and 31 (9 folding, 4 coloured) steel-engraved plates. Contemporary boards with cover of the original printed wrappers pasted on. First German edition of this important monograph on Nicaragua (first published in 1851). The American engineer, archaeologist, diplomat and travel writer E. G. Squier (1821-88) was made U.S. ambassador to the Central American Republics in 1848; as such, he was principally involved with the negotiations to build a canal through the Isthmus of Panama - a plan that was not to be realized until 1906. "Squier not only excavated many antiquities, but also endeavoured to give a complete picture of the physico-geographical as well as social and ethnographcal conditions of the countries he visited" (cf. Henze). - Untrimmed copy; some browning to wide blank margins; slight edge defects (also to plates). Provenance: from the collection of the Königsberg-born geographer, meteorologist, and geologist Hans-Peter Kosack (1912-76), long active in Landshut, with his stamp to title and reverse of plates. - Sabin 89957. Henze V, 204. Engelmann (Bibliotheca geographica) 211. Palau² 321.786. Cf. Embacher 275 (American first ed.).