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.

STANLEY, Henry Morton.

Published by London Sampson Low, 1878

About this Item

First edition; 2 volumes, 8vo (23 x 15.5 cm); signed letter loosely inserted to vol. 1, 2 frontispiece portraits, 10 maps including 2 large folding maps in pockets at rear, 33 wood-engraved plates, illustrations in the text, discreet W.H. Smith blindstamps to endpaper of vol 1; publisher's original gilt pictorial cloth with Africa shown in relief with route across in gilt, spines lettered in gilt, a little rubbed, hinges of vol. 1 cracked but firm, a very good set; xiv, [1], 522; ix, 566 pp. With signed letter from Stanley arranging a meeting with Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh 'at 6 pm Saturday next week'. Dated 3 January 1887, this letter was written in the three weeks that Stanley was back in London from the Congo hastily preparing the Emin-Pasha expedition. The meeting would never take place: Northcote died on the 12th of January, the Wednesday before the Saturday suggested, meaning Stanley presumably had to meet with his successor the Marquess of Salisbury instead. The story of the Anglo-American expedition to Central Africa, commanded by Stanley and undertaken between 1874 and 1877. The discovery of the course of the Congo, though the greatest, was but one of the many geographical problems solved during this memorable expedition. Vast in size, "the procession that departed from Bagamoyo (Tanzania) on 17 November 1874 stretched for more than half a mile and included dozens of men carrying sections of the Lady Alice, with which Stanley intended to explore Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika and Livingstone's Lualaba River. During the next two and a half years, the expedition would struggle in temperatures reaching as high as 138 degrees; the powerful Emperor Mtesa of Uganda and the Wanyoro chief Mirambo would consume a great deal of Stanley's time and test his diplomatic skills; he would have to negotiate with a notorious Arab ivory and slave trader named Tippu-Tib for safe passage of his men through the great rain forest; and he and his men would fight more than thirty skirmishes and battles on land and water against hostile tribes. The geographic prizes Stanley achieved on this expedition were unparalleled. He spent almost two months circumnavigating Lake Victoria, confirming that the only outlet was at Ripon Falls and hence establishing for good, he thought, the source of the Nile. He scouted Lake Albert, then moved south and west to Lake Tanganyika, which he also circumnavigated, proving it had no connection with Lake Albert. Stanley then solved the remaining geographical puzzle, determining that the Lualaba was not part of the Niger or Nile rivers but ultimately flowed into the Congo. He reached the Atlantic Ocean on 9 August 1877, after a journey of more than seven thousand miles, in utter exhaustion." (Delaney). Mendelssohn II, p.380.

Seller Inventory # 120740

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 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.
• Publisher: London Sampson Low
• Publication Date: 1878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)