How I Crossed Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean

This book,(translated into English by Alfred Elwes), details the travels of discovery by Maj. Pinto in two octavo (150 x 220mm) volumes half bound in library bindings of red leather and marbled boards; with the usual library stamps etc. in the front of both volumes. Vol. 1: 24 preliminary and 377 pages of text; Vol. 2: seven preliminary pages plus 388 pages of text. many engraved ills & maps. The books, which are ex library, were acquired in a completely tattered bindings and have been professionally restored, with the usual library numbers removed from the spines. A map showing Maj Pinto’s journey has been bound in as frontispiece and a large map showing “Tropical South Africa” was bound in at the back of the volume (both as received). In 1877, Serpa Pinto and the naval captains Capelo and Ivens were sent by the Portuguese government to explore the unknown tributaries of the Zambesi and inland Central Africa. They left Benguela in November. Soon after their departure, however, they parted company, Capello and Ivens turning northward whilst Serpa Pinto continued eastward. He crossed the Cuando (Kwando) river in June 1878 and in August reached Lealui, the Barotse capital on the Zambezi. There he received assistance from the missionary Franois Coillard, enabling him to continue his journey along the Zambezi to the Victoria Falls. He then turned south and arrived at Pretoria in northern South Africa on February 12, 1879. Serpa Pinto was the fourth explorer to cross Africa from west to east, and the first to lay down a reasonably accurate route between Biz (in present-day Angola) and Lealui. In 1881 the Royal Geographical Society awarded him their Founder's Medal, "for his journey across Africa, during which he explored five hundred miles of new country"