The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce Written by Himself, during a Residence in Abyssinia from the Years 1810–1819; Together with Mr Coffin's Account of his First Visit to Gondar The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce 2 Volume Set Series

Nathaniel Pearce (1779?1820) was, according to J. J. Halls, who edited and published his autobiographical writings in 1831, 'one of those remarkable and adventurous beings, whom Nature ? seems to take delight in creating'. Having run away to sea twice, deserted from the navy, accidentally killed a man, and briefly converted to Islam, he came into his own as a guide and factotum to British travellers in Egypt. He accompanied Henry Salt's 1805 mission to Abyssinia, where he married a local girl and served the ruler of Tigré until the latter's death in 1816. Pearce's humorous account of his life is particularly interesting in the details it gives of the land and people of Ethiopia, then little known by Europeans. In Volume 2, the situation in Abyssinia becomes dangerous and Pearce decides to escape down the Nile. The journal ends abruptly in 1819, a year before his death.

11. Military character of the Abyssinians; 12. Buildings undertaken by the Ras; 13. Disturbances excited by the Abuna; 14. Civil war among the chiefs for the dignity of the Ras; 15. Pearce receives a box from Mr salt; 16. Pearce goes to the camp of the Gas Ischias; 17. Proceedings of the Gas Ischias; 18. Fray at a 'marver'; 19. Triumph of the Abuna; 20. Disturbed state of the country; 21. Pearce resolves to leave Abyssinia; 22. Voyage from Rabak to Suez; Appendix.