In Darkest Africa.

London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington Limited,, 1890. The account of Stanley's last adventure on the African continent First edition of Stanley's famous account of his expedition to relieve Emin Pasha, the beleaguered governor of equatorial Sudan. This attractively illustrated work contains some of Stanley's most celebrated writing, especially the account of the tortuous 450-mile passage through the dense Ituri Rainforest. On January 1887 Stanley left London, travelling to Congo by way of Zanzibar. Later in the same year, an advance party set off from Yambuya on a journey of over five months through the Ituri Rainforest. After the loss of 180 men, and "ravaged by the effects of disease, hunger, and warfare, Stanley and his team reached Lake Albert in December 1887. Failing to find Emin, they retreated to Ibwiri, where a camp was constructed. On 29 April 1888 Stanley himself finally met Emin Pasha, drinking champagne with him on the shores of Lake Albert, as he had with Livingstone at Ujiji in 1871" (ODNB). In the course of the journey, Stanley became the first European to discover the great snow-capped range of Ruwenzori, and the Mountains of the Moon. He also located a lake, which he named the Albert Edward Nyanza, in addition to a large south-western extension of Lake Victoria. Translations of In Darkest Africa appeared quickly in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch while sales of the English trade editions reached 150,000 copies. Two volumes, octavo. Original red pictorial cloth, spines and front covers lettered and illustrated in black and gilt, map endpapers in pale green. Frontispiece in each volume, 36 plates, 3 folding maps (2 colour), colour profile sketch, folding table of languages in vol. II, illustrations in the text; newspaper clippings loosely inserted, and a map of Stanley's route mounted on verso of front free endpaper in vol. I. Contemporary ownership inscription on preliminary leaf in each volume, "W. Carter, Red House, Chantilly"; occasional pencilled marginalia in French. Cloth lightly mottled with edges rubbed, vol. II with neat repairs to inner hinges, and frontispiece tipped in, two maps with judicious repairs to verso with translucent tape. A very good copy with the gilt bright. Howgego IV, S60.