THE ALBERT N'YANZA GREAT BASIN OF THE NILE

With maps and illustrations and portraits. In two volumes.

First edition: 2 volumes vol. 1 xi + 395 pages, vol 11 xi + 384 pages, 2 maps in volume 1, 1 folding - which has been simply repaired on the back with tape, frontispiece portraits in volume 1, frontispiece of the Lake in volume 2,11 wood-engraved plates, numerous text illustrations, ownership signatures in both volumes on the front free endpapers, bookplate of Alpheus Gardner Williams on the front free endpaper in volume 1 and on the front pastedown endpaper in volume 2, marbled endpapers and edges, half green leather with matching marbled boards, titled gilt on the spines, a very good set.

Editor's note to the facsimile reprint published by Cambridge University Press (2011) 'Sir Samuel Baker (1821-93) was one of the most famous Victorian explorers and hunters. First published in two illustrated volumes in 1866, this account of his most celebrated expedition is amongst the most important works of its type. Baker promises 'to take the reader by the hand, and lead him step by step ... through scorching deserts and thirsty sands; through swamp and jungle ... until I bring him, faint with the wearying journey, to that high cliff ... from which he shall look down upon the vast Albert Lake and drink with me from the sources of the Nile!' He is taken a prisoner of a native king. Baker offers a number of 'gifts' to buy his release, and after an arduous journey, with his wife in a coma, in March 1864 he reaches Luta N'zige, which he renames in memory of Prince Albert. A compelling account of a historic adventure.'