THE NILE TRIBUTARIES OF ABYSSINIA

Second Edition: 596 pages bound in two volumes in full brown Morocco blind stamped design on upper and lower covers within a gilt border, inner gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers and all edges gilt, engraved plates, text illustrations and two folding maps, bookplates on each front paste-down endpaper, contents bright, a very good copy.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Baker) ‘Sir Samuel White Baker KCB FRS FRGS (8 June 1821 – 30 December 1893) was an English explorer, officer, naturalist, big game hunter, engineer, writer and abolitionist. He also held the titles of Pasha and Major-General in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. He served as the Governor-General of the Equatorial Nile Basin (today's South Sudan and Northern Uganda) between April 1869 and August 1873, which he established as the Province of Equatoria.

‘In March 1861 he started upon his first tour of exploration in central Africa. This, in his own words, was undertaken "to discover the sources of the river Nile, with the hope of meeting the East African expedition under Captains Speke and Grant somewhere about the Lake Victoria." After a year spent on the Sudan–Ethiopian frontier, during which time he learned Arabic, explored the Atbara river and other Nile tributaries, and proved that the Nile sediment came from Ethiopia, he arrived at Khartoum, leaving that city in December 1862 to follow up the course of the White Nile.

‘Two months later at Gondokoro he met Speke and Grant, who, after being led by the local Africans to the source of the Nile, were following the river to Egypt. Their success made him fear that there was nothing left for his own expedition to accomplish; but the two explorers gave him information which enabled him, after separating from them, to achieve the first European visit to Albert Nyanza (Lake Albert), of whose existence credible assurance had already been given to Speke and Grant. Baker first sighted the lake on 14 March 1864. After some time spent in the exploration of the neighbourhood, Baker demonstrated that the Nile flowed through the Albert Nyanza. He formed an exaggerated idea of the relative importance of the Albert and Victoria lake sources in contributing to the Nile flow rate. Although he believed them to be near equal, Albert Nyanza sources add only 15% to the Nile flow at this point, the remainder provided primarily by outflow from Lake Victoria. While in this area, Baker and his wife became the first Europeans to see a substantial waterfall on the Victoria Nile, which Baker named Murchison Falls after the then-president of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Roderick Murchison. He started upon his return journey, and reached Khartoum, after many checks, in May 1865.

‘In the following October Baker returned to England with his wife, who had accompanied him throughout the dangerous and difficult journeys in Africa. In recognition of the achievements, the Royal Geographical Society awarded him its Patron's Medal, and a similar distinction was bestowed on him by the Paris Geographical Society. In August 1866 he was knighted. In the same year he published The Albert N'yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources, and in 1867 The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, both books quickly turned into several editions. In 1868 he published a popular story called Cast up by the Sea. In 1869 he travelled with the future King Edward VII (who was the Prince of Wales at that time) through Egypt.’