TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA: BEING A JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION UNDERTAKEN UNDER THE AUSPICES OF H. B. M.'S GOVERNMENT, IN THE YEARS 1849-1855

5 volumes. First Edition of each volume, with both U.S. and UK slugged title-pages, not uncommonly encountered. All volumes printed in the U.K. by Spottiswoode for Longman, and for U.S. distribution with only the title-page publisher's slug differing from the UK issue, noting Appleton as the publisher. Volumes I to IV with the Appleton imprint, volume V with the Longmans imprint. Impressively illustrated with 60 colour-tinted lithographic plates, 15 maps, most of which are multi-folding, and numerous woodcuts, mostly in text but one large and folding. 8vo, beautifully and very handsomely bound in three-quarter brown calf over marbled paper covered boards, the spines with raised bands gilt tooled separating the compartments which are elaborately decorated in all over gilt tooled panel designs, contrasting red and sepia lettering labels gilt, green morocco numbering label gilt, all edges marbled, a superbly bound set. xxxvi, 578; xi, 676, xii, 635; xiv, 641; xi, 694, errata. A superior set, very fine and bright, the text unusually clean and fresh, the plates fine and vivid with tissues intact, one of the folding maps with separations at the folds, most of the others essentially pristine and without evidence of use, the bindings in pristine condition and truly handsome. FIRST EDITION, PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH FINE COLOURPLATES OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORKS CONCERNING EUROPEAN EXPLORATION IN AFRICA. Barth spent five years ranging widely and freely over northern, central, and western Africa (as you will see on the included maps) and returned with a vast bounty of information on the region's culture, geography and economy. He was able to do all this because he spent the years there brilliantly disguised as a Muslim scholar. These impressive illustrated volumes are the detailed account of "one of the most fruitful expeditions ever undertaken in inner Africa. In addition to journeys across the Sahara, Barth traversed the country from Lake Chad and Bagirmi on the east to Timbuktu on the west and Cameroon on the south. he studied minutely the topography, history, civilizations and resources of the countries visited. for accuracy, interest, variety and extent of information Barth’s ‘Travels’ have few rivals among works of the kind. It is a book that will always rank as a standard authority on the regions in question." -Ency. Brit. He was the first European to enter Yola and describe the Fulani kingdom of Adamana; he charted the Benue river and disproved the theory that it flowed into Lake Chad.he was the first European to truly submerse himself in African culture and bring back scientific results of lasting value. "Fluent in Arabic and already a veteran of several years' Middle East and northern Africa travel experience, Barth was teaching in Berlin in 1849 when he was offered the chance to join a British government - sponsored expedition aimed at establishing commercial contacts and suppressing the slave trade in the area around Lake Chad (today's Niger, Chad, and Nigeria). British antislavery activist James Richardson and German geologist Adolf Overweg were his two European companions. However, both men succumbed to African conditions and died: Richardson from heat exhaustion and fever in March 1851 and Overweg from malaria in September 1852. Alone, Barth continued the mission with several Arabs he had hired along the way, including two slaves freed by Overweg. Among Barth's noteworthy achievements in West Africa was his stay for more than nine months in Timbuktu. When he returned to London on 6 September 1855, he was warmly received but not formally recognized by the British government for his services."- Delaney The appendices contain tables of meteorological data for his five years of travel, chronologies of history for certain areas, vocabularies, descriptions of routes, and lists of towns.…