THE CONGO AND THE FOUNDING OF ITS FREE STATE:

First Edition: Two volumes: 528 + 483 pages, frontispiece in both volumes, 5 folding coloured maps - 2 large folding at the end of each volume, 42 full page plates and 78 smaller illustrations in the text, original pictorial green cloth, small withdrawn library stamps on the verso of both title pages, a very good copy.

 ‘Although it did not involve any significant geographical discoveries, Stanley considered his work on the Congo to be among the most important of his life. His book The Congo and the Founding of its Free State (2 vols., 1885) promoted what he called the 'gospel of enterprise' (2.377), emphasizing both the commercial potential of the region and the hard labour necessary to exploit it. He revelled in the name Bula Matari, portraying his aim in the Congo as nothing less than the conquest of nature. On his return, however, Stanley found himself a small player in a much larger game of international diplomacy, culminating in the Berlin Congress of 1884–5, at which he acted as an adviser to the American delegation. The establishment of the Congo Free State, a territory of nearly 1 million square miles which Stanley had done much to secure, was one of the most significant events in the history of the so-called 'scramble for Africa'. Subsequent events were to show that Leopold's ambitions were not quite so philanthropic as Stanley represented them. But he denied to the last any responsibility for the atrocities that were to follow.’

(Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Stanley, Sir Henry Morton, 1841–1904, Felix Driver)