Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa: Performed Under the Direction and Patronage of the African Association, In the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797
With An Appendix, Containing Geographical Illustrations of Africa by Major Rennell Philadelphia: Printed from the London Quarto Edition by James Humphreys, 1800.
Later printing. Leather bound. Octavo. [1], xxii, pages 23 - 484 pages, [1]. Large folding frontispiece map is present. Map has an approx. 2" closed tear on the right edge and border with no loss. Another small 1" closed tear top left edge. Brown pigskin leather binding with red leather title label on the spine. Leather is scuffed and worn on the covers. Corners are bumped. Moderate toning throughout the text. First printed in London 1799. Also printed in 1800 in New York. Previous owner armorial book plate of Henry H. Finken on the front paste down. Good. Item #35651
From wikipedia:
Mungo Park (11 September 1771 – 1806) was a Scottish explorer of West Africa. After an exploration of the upper Niger River around 1796, he wrote a popular and influential travel book titled Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa in which he theorized the Niger and Congo merged to become the same river. He was killed during a second expedition, having successfully traveled about two-thirds of the way down the Niger. With Park's death, the idea of a Niger-Congo merger remained an open question although it became the leading theory among geographers.[1] The mystery of the Niger's course, which had been speculated about since the Ancient Greeks and was second only to the mystery of the Nile's source, was not solved for another 25 years, in 1830, when it was discovered the Niger and Congo were in fact separate rivers.
If the African Association was the "beginning of the age of African exploration" then Mungo Park was its first successful explorer; he set a standard for all who followed. Park was the first Westerner to have recorded travels in the central portion of the Niger, and through his popular book introduced the public to a vast unexplored continent which influenced future European explorers and colonial ambitions in Africa.
Price: $350.00