Dapper, Olfert

Dapper's work is the major seventeenth century synthetic account of Africa, for the most part derived from published sources, but also making use of otherwise unknown original material, notably from the Dutch merchant Samuel BLOMMAERT or BLOMERT, who was involved in trade with western Africa during ca.1614 to ca.l651. Blommaert was the source for Dapper's extensive description of the Kquoja and their neighbours in the Sierra Leone-Cape Mount region and for some of his information on Loango and Angola. For an analysis of Dapper's sources, published and unpublished, see Adam IONES, "Decompiling Dapper: a Preliminary Search for Evidence," HA 17 (1990),:171-209

The first French edition of a broad survey of African geography, peoples, products, and natural history.

Asia tackles the tough issues, the complex problems, and the political controversies surrounding the environment of this vast landmass. This volume encompasses everything from economics, land use, energy and transportation, to air pollution, rivers and lakes, oceans, and species and habitat protection.In Malaysia, unchecked discharges of industrial waste and human sewage led the government to label 42 of its rivers officially "dead." According to some estimates, Southeast Asia alone accounts for more than half of the world's total transport of sediment to the oceans. In the Philippines, the Chico River dam project, which would have subjected 100,000 tribespeople to relocation, was canceled when the World Bank withdrew funding after fierce resistance from the indigenous people. This fascinating book offers a comprehensive look at how the most populated continent on earth contends with its complicated environment.