TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR DISTRICTS OF AFRICA

Performed under the direction and patronage of the Africa Association,

In the years 1795, 1796, and 1797

Fifth edition: xx, 551 pages, frontispiece portrait, large folding map, 5 plates, 3 folding all bound in at the back, rebound in half calf with matching marbled boards and end papers, red title labels gilt on the spine, uncut fore-edge and bottom edge, top edge gilt, a very good copy.

Printing and the Mind of Man no. 253: Park's Travels had an immediate success and was translated into most European languages. It has become a classic of travel literature, and its scientific observations on the botany and meteorology of the region, and on the social and domestic life of the Negroes, have remained of lasting value. Park’s career was short, but he made the first great practical advance in the opening-up of Central Africa. Park did not solve the problem of the Niger: he believed it to be a tributary of the Nile or to be really identical with the Congo; but he set the further exploration of the region in the right direction. Clapperton, Oudney, Lander, Barth and others followed in Park’s footsteps and found the source of the river in Sierra Leone in 1822 and its mouth in the Gulf of Guinea in 1830.' One of only two books on Africa included in the 'Printing and the Mind of Man', the other being 'Livingstone's Missionary Travels and Researches'.