The Rest of Africa

$1,995 -- Through the Dark Continent by Henry Morton Stanley

An unusually nice set, internally near pristine. Lack of foxing is very rare for the London editions.

First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo., xiv, [1], 522; ix, 566 pp., 2 frontispiece portraits, 10 maps including 2 large folding maps in pockets at rear, 33 wood-engraved plates, illustrations in the text, original brown pictorial cloth.

In 1874, the New York Herald and the Daily Telegraph financed Stanley on another expedition to Africa. Stanley's ambitious objective was to complete the exploration and mapping of the Central African Great Lakes and rivers, in the process circumnavigating Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika and locating the source of the Nile.

This was Stanley's second journey in central Africa. In 1871–72 he had searched for and successfully found the missionary and explorer David Livingstone. In his publications, Stanley described greeting him with the famous words: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Between 1874 and 1877 Henry Morton Stanley traveled Central Africa east to west, exploring Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and the Lualaba and Congo rivers. He covered 7,000 miles (11,000 km) from Zanzibar in the east to Boma at the mouth of the Congo in the west. The expedition resolved several open questions concerning the geography of Central Africa, including identifying the source of the Nile, which he proved was not the Lualaba.

$1,295 -- Henry Morton Stanley Collection

The greatest African explorer the world has ever known!

11 volumes--All of his major works. British first editions ALL (except for his first, which is a 2nd [though same year as the 1st, 1872])

Foxing does not plague these volumes, despite them all being British editions published by Sampson Low, and it is very uncommon for the British editions to remain largely free of foxing!

Top page edges gilt, and some volumes have sections professionally added at the end to contain maps without bowing the boards (see photo). The volumes are sturdy and utilitarian.

HOW I FOUND LIVINGSTONE (Dr. Livingstone, I presume?)
COOMASSIE AND MAGDALA
THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT
THE CONGO, AND THE FOUNDING OF ITS FREE STATE
IN DARKEST AFRICA
MY EARLY TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES IN AMERICA AND ASIA
AUTOBIOGRAPHY

$695 -- Through the Dark Continent by Henry Morton Stanley

An unusually nice set, internally near pristine.

2 volumes. The 1878 American first printing of the first edition in the original Deluxe Half-Leather and Marbled Boards binding.

Numerous illustrations and maps throughout, including 34 full page plates and two very large folding maps in rear pockets of each volume.

$425 -- The Albert N'Yanza by Samuel White Baker

Sir Samuel White Baker’s THE ALBERT N'YANZA

Beautifully rebound in a custom fine binding. 1866 first London edition published by Macmillan in 2 volumes. Some wear to outer hinges, edges, corners. Repair to large fold-out map.

This is one of the most exciting accounts of true exploration and adventure ever published.

Baker and his young wife, whom he purportedly stole from a slave auction in the Ottoman Empire when he was not the winning bidder, for an entire year explored the many tributaries of the Nile and learned Arabic in preparation for exploring for the source of the Nile. The Bakers’ subsequent Nile explorations, and meeting John Hanning Speke and James Augustus Grant on their way back from discovering the source of the Nile, is covered in Baker’s THE ALBERT N’YANZA, which was published in 1866 even though the events occurred after the events of Baker's THE NILE TRIBUTARIES (published a year later in 1867).

Exploration for the source of the Nile reached a fever pitch in the mid-1800s. The whereabouts of the source of the Nile was a mystery that had puzzled and intrigued men since the days of the pharaohs. By the mid-19th century, it was generally recognized as the most important of all unsolved geographical questions. It was finally solved when-a young English Army officer called John Hanning Speke came upon a vast lake which he named Victoria “after our gracious queen’. He wrote in his diary: “I no longer felt any doubt that the lake at my feet gave birth to that river the source of which has been the subject of so much speculation and the object of so many explorers." Yet, curiously, his historic discovery — at the time unsupported by scientific evidence — proved to be more of a personal tragedy than a triumph. It led to his involvement in one of the bitterest feuds in the annals of exploration; and, indirectly, it may have led to his premature death. Speke's feud was with Richard Burton, the celebrated explorer whom he had twice accompanied to Africa. Their second journey together, an attempt to discover the source of the Nile, brought them after many hardships to a great lake never before seen by Europeans, Lake Tanganyika. They suspected, wrongly, that they had reached their goal. On the return march, it was agreed that Speke, Burton being too ill to accompany Speke, should strike out northwards to locate another “great sea” that natives had described. It was this journey that brought Speke alone, 16 days later, to Lake Victoria. Burton did not accept that this lake was the source of the Nile. But Speke, returning to England ahead of Burton, won great kudos for his discovery; and the Royal Geographical Society gave Speke command an expedition to explore the lake more thoroughly. The excursions of Speke and Burton are captured in the very rare WHAT LED TO THE DISCOVER OF THE COURSE OF THE NILE. Speke returned to explore again, this time with Grant instead of Burton, due to a falling-out with Burton. The excursion of Speke and Grant is captured in Speke’s JOURNAL OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, and Grant’s A WALK ACROSS AFRICA. Grant’s narrative is very scarce in first edition. Samuel Baker, along with his wife (whom he had acquired at a slave-auction in the Ottoman Empire) explored together 1861-1865, and met Speke and Grant on their return journey, and Baker succored Speke and Grant. The Pethericks were exploring 1861-1865, and were entrusted with supplies meant for the relief of Speke and Grant. Speke and Grant were displeased with Petherick when he arrived where Speke and Grant had a few days earlier met up with Baker. The Petherick's published their account: TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AFRICAExcerpt from Baker's THE ALBERT N'YANZA: February 15, 1863:When I first met [Speke and Grant] they were walking along the bank of the river towards my boats. At a distance of about a hundred yards I recognised my old friend Speke, and with a heart beating with joy I took off my cap and gave a welcome hurrah! I hardly required an introduction to his companion, as we felt already acquainted. At the first blush on meeting them I had considered my expedition as terminated by having met them, and by their having accomplished the discovery of the Nile source; but... Speke and Grant with characteristic candour and generosity gave me a map of their route, showing that they had been unable to complete the actual exploration of the Nile, and that a most important portion still remained to be determined... The natives and the King of Unyoro (Kamrasi) had assured them that the Nile from the Victoria N'yanza, which they had crossed at Karuma, flowed westward for several days' journey, and at length fell into a large lake called the Luta N'zige; that this lake came from the south, and that the Nile on entering the northern extremity almost immediately made its exit, and as a navigable river continued its course to the north. Both Speke and Grant attached great importance to this lake Luta N'zige, and the former was much annoyed that it had been impossible for them to carry out the exploration. As it happened, it was impossible for Speke and Grant to follow the Nile from Karuma:—the tribes were fighting with Kamrasi, and no strangers could have got through the country. Accordingly they procured their information most carefully, completed their map, and laid down the reported lake in its supposed position, showing the Nile as both influent and effluent precisely as had been explained by the natives.Speke expressed his conviction that the Luta N'zige must be a second source of the Nile, and that geographers would be dissatisfied that he had not explored it. To me this was most gratifying. I had been much disheartened at the idea that the great work was accomplished, and that nothing remained for exploration; I even said to Speke, "Does not one leaf of the laurel remain for me?" I now heard that the field was not only open, but that an additional interest was given to the exploration by the proof that the Nile flowed out of one great lake, the Victoria, but that it evidently must derive an additional supply from an unknown lake as it entered it at the NORTHERN extremity, while the body of the lake came from the south.February 20, 1863: On the 20th February [the Pethericks] suddenly arrived from the Niambara, with their people and ivory and were surprised at seeing so large a party of English in so desolate a spot.On the 26th February, Speke and Grant sailed from Gondokoro [to England].

$450 -- The Albert N'Yanza by Samuel White Baker

Sir Samuel White Baker’s THE ALBERT N'YANZA

Beautifully rebound in a custom fine binding. 1866 first London edition published by Macmillan in 2 volumes. Mild foxing to mainly early pages of first volume. Repair to large fold-out map.

This is one of the most exciting accounts of true exploration and adventure ever published.

$349 -- Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon by Samuel Baker

First printing of the First Edition

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855

Complete with color lithographic frontispiece and 5 additional color lithographic plates.

Welcomely, this copy is free of foxing. But, it was formerly in the Toronto Public Library, and has blind-stamps to that effect--blind-stamps instead of more conspicuous foxing spots. Very sturdy copy, which appears to be unread after it was rebound in a utilitarian binding.

$275 - The Highlands of Ethiopia

Published by J. Winchester, New World Press, circa 1843/1844, though no date in the book.

This is the First American edition "from the first London edition"

392 total pages; text ends at 338, 8 appendices from 339-392

Half title: The highlands of Ethiopia described, during eighteen months' residence of a British embassy at the Christian court of Shoa

Title page with a vignette illustration

Color lithograph (Endicott) immediately after title-page.

Single illustration on a plate, facing page 105

Single illustration on a plate, facing page 201

Two illustrations on a plate, facing page 297

Appendix VII "Catalogue of extant mss. in the Ethiopic and Amharic tongues": p. 360-361

Appendix VIII "Senkesar or Synaxaria. The calendar of the Ethiopic Christian church": p. 363-392

Harris led an expedition into Ethiopia (Abyssinia) for the British government, and describes in detail local cultural and physical conditions. Text in double columns. Six illustrations, including color lithograph of King Sahela Selassie. Important early work on this area of Africa.

$195 - LION IN THE EVENING by Alan Scholefield

SIGNED limited edition, #72/100

VERY SCARCE BOOK ! !

First American edition in nearly-new condition.

British East Africa during World War I is the setting of this taut, exciting novel. The British are rushing to complete a vital railway link, but progress is hindered by hostile terrain and the depredations of two man-eating lions. While the hungry animals continue to prowl and kill, and the colony slowly bleeds to death under German attack, two men face the greatest challenge of their Colonel Frederick Storey, once a famous hunter, and Richard Kendon, an Amnerican engineer caught in a war not his own.
Reminiscent of Patterson's MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO....
You also get a free copy of THE LAST SAFARI !
--------------Alan Scholefield was born in 1931 in Cape Town, South Africa. After leaving university he became a journalist and travelled widely in southern and central Africa, Europe, and America. He now lives in Hampshire with his wife and has three daughters. Most famous for his Macrae and Silver series, Scholefield has also written other novels, including Venom, which was made into a film in 1981.

$145 - Travels in Central Africa by Pethericks

Travels in Central Africa, and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries

by Mr. and Mrs. (John and Kate) Petherick

Facsimile reprints of the Tinsley Brothers, London, 1869 First Edition: 2 volumes: bound by hand in red leather, with hand-marbled papers. A handsome set, as-new and unread, well-made and ready for your reading pleasure and collection. Since the volumes are hand-made don't expect them to be machine-perfect. Facsimile of original decorated cloth cover tipped into each volume. Facsimile map with red routes tipped into each volume. Multiple facsimile illustrations tipped into the volumes.

The original first editions are very rare, and very expensive; so, these facsimile volumes are the next best thing.

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