PBA Galleries

2 volumes in 1. xxviii, 372, [2], xcii, [6] pp; [12], cxxx, [2], 219, [2] ad pp. Illustrated with engraved portrait frontispiece after Edridge, three engraved folding maps, an engraved folding chart, and five engraved plates after drawings by Park, two of which are botanicals and the others, views. Also contains 2 pp. of music, "A Negro Song". (4to), full calf with red morocco spine label, titled and tooled in gilt. First Editions.

Mungo Park's legendary solo expedition into the interior of Africa in search of the source of the Niger River is one of the most remarkable tales in the annals of African exploration. Chosen as their envoy by the African Association when still in his early twenties, Park was able to travel as far as Timbuktoo on this, his first voyage, although he was stripped of his trade goods, supplies, and indeed his very clothing soon after passing into the unexplored regions. Park "made the first great practical advance in the opening-up of Central Africa...until the publication of [his books] hardly anything was known of the interior of Africa" (PMM 253).