Books

Six volumes. tall quarto (10 by 12 inches), publisher's decorative cloth , uncut. Two steel-engraved portrait frontispieces, 3 folding maps (small professional repair to close the tear to map in volume 6), 38 plates & 6 etchings (signed by the artist), with numerous illustrations. The very scarce London subscriber's edition. Spines slightly faded but a beautiful near-fine set with bright decorative cover now housed in a custom red slipcase. Perhaps no adventurer is more closely connected with Africa than Lord Stanley, whose various expeditions did more to reveal the nature of that continent than any modern explorer. His 1887 mission to relieve the besieged governor of Egypt, his last mission to Africa, ended miserably when Stanley arrived only to learn that the governor did not care to be relieved, but instead was angry at the Englishman for interfering in his affairs. This account contains the harrowing details of Stanley's journey through the nearly impenetrable Ituri, or Great Congo, Forest, which he traversed not once but three times over the course of his travels. The conditions were brutal; sometimes the expedition could achieve no more than three or four hundred yards an hour. Along the way Stanley compiled important data on the Pygmies and discovered the Ruwenzori, or "Mountains of the Moon." The perilous journey nearly cost Stanley his life, and only a third of the men with whom he set out returned alive. Published in the same year as the more common trade issue. Hosken, 189.

Stanley's account of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, detailing the experiences and obstacles faced while navigating the Congo.