THE LAST JOURNALS OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, In Central Africa. From Eighteen Hundred Sixty-five to his Death, Continued by a narrative of His Last Moments and Sufferings, obtained from His Faithful Servants Chuma and Susi

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875. First Edition, American Issue. With frontispiece, 20 full page illustrations, 25 smaller illustrations, and two maps, 1 folding in pocket. Tall 8vo, publisher’s original brick-red cloth over boards, a gilt scene of Livingstone on the upper cover framed in blind, gilt lettered and with decorations and illustrations on the spine. 541, 4 ads. pp. A good copy with some evidence of age at the tips and edges, inner hinges a bit shaken. FIRST EDITION OF THE LAST JOURNALS OF LIVINGSTONE. A rare look at one of the great explorers of Africa, told first hand through his collected journals. This work contains a detailed description of Livingstone's last expedition, which began in Zanzibar in 1866 and ended with his death on the south shore of Lake Tanganyika in 1873. "The two main objects of the expedition were the suppression of slavery by means of civilizing influences, and the ascertainment of the watershed in the region between Nyasa and Tanganyika. At first Livingstone thought the Nile problem had been solved by Speke, Burton, and Baker, but the idea grew upon him that the Nile sources must be sought farther south, and his last journey became in the end a forlorn hope in search of the 'fountains' of Herodotus." These journals were delivered into the hands of Livingstone’s friends whole and intact; no break occurs in the seven years of his mission from its beginning in Zanzibar to its tragic end in the village of Ilala.
From the introduction: “In the midst of the universal sorrow caused by the intelligence that Dr. Livingstone had lost his life at the farthest point to which he had penetrated in his search for the true sources of the Nile, a faint hope was indulged that some of his journals might survive the disaster: this hope, I rejoice to say, has been realized beyond the most sanguine expectations.
It is due, in the first place, to his native attendants, whose faithfulness has placed his last writings at our disposal, and also to the reader, before he launches forth upon a series of travels and scientific geographic records of the most extraordinary character, to say that in the following narrative of seven years’ continuous work and new discovery no break whatever occurs.”
A staple for any collection of Africana.