THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT 1st European edition, 4 volumes

Asher's Collection of English Authors, British and American, Copyright Edition

This 4-volume set is the first European Edition, published the same year as the 1st British edition published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London; and the 1st American edition published by Harper & Brothers, New York.

Extremely rare set of books, complete with a fold-out map of Stanley's route through Africa, and a copious appendix and index. The books may be bound in 3/4 or 1/2 vellum with marbled paper over boards, with matching marbled paper endsheets; photos reveal flaws that I could find/notice.

Sir Henry Morton Stanley, GCB (born John Rowlands) 1841 – 1904) was a Welsh journalist and explorer who was famous for his exploration of central Africa and his search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone. Upon finding Livingstone, Stanley reportedly asked, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" After the death of Livingstone, Stanley resolved to return to Africa and finish his work, and also to resolve some of the problems introduced by Burton and Speke. Livingstone had considered it his mission to finish mapping and studying Central Africa, resolve some of the questions about the source of the Nile and to report on the doings of the slave traders, a practice that Livingstone spoke actively against. Criticized even at the time for what many considered his harsh treatment of the native peoples, Stanley did manage to finish what Livingstone had started and open up Central Africa to the west. When Stanley made his first journey, he was one of a very few white people on the entire continent. Within the twenty years which elapsed after Stanley’s first journey, the continent was being viewed as a commercial, political, and strategic destiny by many of the countries in Europe

Stanley is also known for his work in colonizing the Congo Basin region in association with King Leopold II of Belgium, and his command of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. He was knighted in 1899.