The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa in the Year 1805.

The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa in the Year 1805. Together with other documents, official and private, relating to the same mission. To which is prefixed an account of the life of Mr. Park. Illustrated with folding engraved map with routes hand colored in red and blue by the geographer Major Rennell.

4to. Contemporary ¾-leather-backed marbled boards; spine rebacked, with original spine laid down; 2 spine labels with gilt letters. London, W. Bulmer and Co., 1815. Second Edition, Revised and Corrected, with Additions. 2 volumes bound in one.

Mungo Park was the first westerner to travel to the central portion of the Niger River. Until the publication of his book about his first African journey in 1799, hardly anything was known of the interior of the continent. His narrative, complete with scientific observations on the botany and meteorology of the region, and the social and domestic life of the natives, has become a classic of travel literature.

Park made the first great practical advance in opening up central Africa, and returned to Africa for a second mission in 1805. This time he traveled on the Niger by canoe, but was stopped in his attempt to reach the source of the river by the rapids at Boussa. He and his companions were killed there in a fight with the natives.

Fortunately, Park had sent his journals on to Gambia, and they were finally published in 1815. Some scuffing and soiling to covers; title page has been re-hinged; o/w a bright, clean copy of this classic work.