1890 In Darkest Africa

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding

The first trade edition.

Complete in two volumes.

Volume I is illustrated with a frontispiece, one folding map, fourteen plates, and in-text illustrations. 

Volume II is illustrated with a frontispiece, two folding maps, twenty-two plates, one map, and in-text illustrations. Two pages of publisher's adverts to the rear.

Collated, complete.

'In Darkest Africa' is a famous travel work which traces the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1886-1889. This expedition was one of the most important nineteenth century expeditions into the interior of Africa, to rescue the governor of Equatoria, Emin Pasha, who was besieged and threatened by Mahdist forces. 

This expedition became celebrated for the sheer ambition and the distance of 'darkest Africa' that was travelled by Charles Gordon and his troops. Stanley felt that the expedition was for humanitarian purposes rather than a military conquest.

Stanley was appointed to lead the relief expedition and left England in January 1887, arriving at the mouth of the Congo in March. After immense hardships and great loss of life, Stanley met Emin in 1888, charted the Ruwenzori Range and Lake Edward, and emerged from the interior with Emin and his surviving followers at the end of 1890.