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. Vol I-II

Description:

First edition. Scarce in original cloth. 32-page publisher's catalogue dated April, 1878, to rear of Vol. II. Sir Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) was freelance journalist and special correspondent for the New York Herald, which sponsored his famous East African expedition 1871-72 to locate the Scottish explorer and missionary, David Livingstone. In 1874, Stanley undertook another African expedition, this time sponsored by the Herald with the London Daily Telegraph newspapers, to explore Central Africa, crossing the continent from coast to coast. This work is an account of the expedition, its many hardships and geographical achievements; in this work he coined the term "Dark Continent" for Africa. He set out from Zanzibar on the Indian Ocean, November 1874 and circumnavigated Lake Victoria. His observations, firmly proved that Lake Victoria was indeed the source of the Nile. Stanley then explored Lake Albert and Lake Tanganyika. He travelled down and documented the course of the Lualaba and Congo rivers, finally reaching the Atlantic, August 1877. Of the 356 people who initially started the expedition only 114 survived. Stanley was the only European of four who lived to tell the tale of this epic journey.

Condition

2 vols, 8vo, orig. brown dec. cloth, stamped in black and gilt to front boards and spines. Inner hinges to Vol. I cracked but firm. Some scattered foxing. Short tears to junctions of some folds on the two large maps, which are also browned to the section which has been in contact with the board inside the pockets. Vg.

Two small printed labels to endpaper of each volume. The first label states 'From the Library of Comte de Chambord (Henri V of France, Duke of Bordeaux), Born 1820. Acquired by Maggs Bros. Ltd'. Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné d'Artois (1820-1883) was a Duke of Bordeaux, grandson of Charles X of France, and final pretender to the throne of France through the Legitimist line. He was the senior male descendent of the house of Bourbon, and the last legitimate heir of the line of Louis XV, whose family had abdicated the throne during the July revolution of 1830. Despite this, he would continue to press his claim against the second French empire of Napoleon III, and into the Third French Republic.

The second lable states, 'From the library of H. Harvey Frost'. Henry Harvey Frost' (1873-1969) was an industrialist, bibliophile and collector of manuscripts, his collection was dispersed largely through the bookseller Maggs.

Also, later from the library of D.J. Greathead (1931-2006), with his name, dated 'May 1957', to endpapers.