Through the Dark Continent or The Sources of the Nile Around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and Down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean. 2 Vols.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1879. First American edition. Thick octavo (9" x 6"). 2 volumes. xiv, 522; ix, (1), 566pp. Plus 2pp. publisher's ads. Wrap around pictorial green cloth stamped in red, black & gilt. Woodcut frontispiece portraits with tissue guards. Illustrated with 10 colored maps (some folding) and 150 text woodcuts (some full-page). Housed in each volume's rear pocket is a large, colored folding map (intact but with some age-related separations at creases & folds). Blank margin of one text folding map in Vol. 2 chipped where it once extended beyond the text block (no loss to the map). Front cover of Vol. 1 very slightly bowed. Corners slightly bumped & lightly frayed. An ex-library set with library bookplates on front pastedowns, faint round embossed library stamp on titles, library rubber stamp on versos of title. There are also library pockets on rear pastedowns, and white ink call letters at foot of spines.
Stanley's expedition was the largest African expedition ever, controversial and at the same time the most celebrated Africa expedition of the 19th century, exploring and mapping the central African lakes and rivers. Known for finding the missing missionary and explorer David Livingstone's and credited with dispelling notion that the Lualaba was the source of the Nile. "Sir Henry Rawlinson, president of the Royal Geographic Society, said that it was not Stanley who had discovered Livingstone, but Livingstone who had discovered Stanley; and some of the newspapers threw doubts upon the authenticity of the whole story of the expedition, and found 'something mysterious and inexplicable' in it's leader's narrative." (DNB).
Note: Included in one table of Vol. 2 are the names of 114 expedition members (mostly Africans) who died during this trek and the causes of their deaths. Item #52689
Price: $250.00