ACROSS AFRICA

London: George Philip & Son, 1885. The first one volume edition with the “new and original matter and corrected map”. This printing includes three additional chapters not in the first printing. Illustrated with 32 plates and illustrations, 120 woodcuts in the text and a large folding coloured map in a pocket at the end. Thick 8vo, publisher’s original dark blue cloth lettered and decorated in gilt on the spine. xxviii, 569, including index. A handsome and well preserved copy, the gilt remains very bright, the cloth nice and dark with just a bit of expected aging to the corners and extremities, the hinges with just a tad of age evidence, internally very fresh and in fine clean condition, the folding map in good order. VERY SCARCE FIRST ONE VOLUME EDITION IN COLLECTOR’S CONDITION. THE FIRST EDITION WITH ADDITIONS AND THE CORRECTED MAP.
After a naval career that took him to Ethiopia and the slaving areas of East Africa, Cameron was selected by the Royal Geographical Society in 1873 to go in search of Livingstone, and instructed also to make independent explorations with Livingstone’s guidance. Upon learning of Livingstone's death, Cameron’s European companions turned back but Cameron dedicated his expedition to geographical exploration of the African continent and forged ahead alone, arriving in Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika in 1874, where he found some of Livingstone’s papers and sent them back to England. Here he began his quest of exploration with his attempts to discover the “true form” of the south part of the lake, which ended up feeding into the Lukuga river. He went west from there to a town previously visited by Livingstone on the Lualaba river, which he suspected (rightly) was the main source for the River Congo but was unsuccessful in his attempts to prove it. His journeys took him further to the southwest until he reached the coast on November 28, 1875, becoming the first European to cross Equatorial Africa “from sea to sea.”
ACROSS AFRICA is the work for which he is best known, containing the exciting detailed account of this cross-continental journey as well as the author’s suggestions for the opening of the African continent such as utilizing the great lakes in a “Cape to Cairo” connection. Cameron spent the remainder of his life working on commercial development projects in places such as Turkey and the Persian Gulf and writing tales for the young. He also accompanied Sir Richard Burton in his West African journey of 1882 and was joint author of Burton’s TO THE GOLD COAST FOR GOLD. Cameron was killed by a fall from horseback as he returned from a hunting expedition in 1894. This is an important work.