Through the Dark Continent [nice leather-bound set] Henry Morton Stanley [Very Good] [Hardcover]

An unusually nice set, internally near pristine. 2 volumes. The 1878 American first printing of the first edition in the original Deluxe Half-Leather and Marbled Boards binding. Numerous illustrations and maps throughout, including 34 full page plates and two very large folding maps in rear pockets of each volume. In 1874, the New York Herald and the Daily Telegraph financed Stanley on another expedition to Africa. Stanley's ambitious objective was to complete the exploration and mapping of the Central African Great Lakes and rivers, in the process circumnavigating Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika and locating the source of the Nile. This was Stanley's second journey in central Africa. In 1871-72 he had searched for and successfully found the missionary and explorer David Livingstone. In his publications, Stanley described greeting him with the famous words: ""Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"" Between 1874 and 1877 Henry Morton Stanley traveled Central Africa east to west, exploring Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and the Lualaba and Congo rivers. He covered 7,000 miles (11,000 km) from Zanzibar in the east to Boma at the mouth of the Congo in the west. The expedition resolved several open questions concerning the geography of Central Africa, including identifying the source of the Nile, which he proved was not the Lualaba. Stanley's journey had four principal aims: 1) Explore Lake Victoria and its inflowing and outflowing rivers; 2) Explore Lake Albert and its inflowing and outflowing rivers; 3) Explore Lake Tanganyika, determining the direction of flow of the Ruzizi River at the north end of the lake; 4) Explore the Lualaba River downstream towards its outflow. There was controversy among earlier explorers as to whether these lakes and rivers were connected to each other and the Nile. Richard Burton thought that Lake Victoria might have a southern inlet, possibly from Lake Albert, meaning that the source of the Nile was not Lake Victoria as explorer John Speke had argued. Samuel Baker thought that Lake Albert might have an inlet from Lake Tanganyika. Livingstone thought that Lualaba was the source of the Nile.