“A CLASSIC OF TRAVEL LITERATURE”: FIRST EDITIONS OF MUNGO PARK’S TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA AND JOURNAL OF A MISSION

(AFRICA) PARK, Mungo. Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa: Performed under the Direction and Patronage of the African Association in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. London: W. Bulmer, 1799. WITH: The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805. London: John Murray (W. Bulmer), 1815. Two volumes. Quarto, contemporary full brown diced calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, red morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers.

First editions of Mungo Park’s classic narratives of African exploration, revealing for the first time the secrets of the “boundless forest” of the Gambia and Niger hinterlands, with a fine stipple-engraved portrait of Park, three folding maps, five engraved plates (two botanical and three of village life), and two plates of native music. With his Journal of the ill-fated second mission, with one folding map and occasional in-text illustration.

“Looking forwards, I saw with pleasure the object of my mission— the long sought-for majestic Niger, glittering in the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster.” Considered the “second great African explorer of British origin after Bruce,” 24-year-old Mungo Park “was the first of the modern Europeans to reach the well-nigh fabulous waters of the Niger” (Cox). “His orders were simple: proceed up the Niger, explore it as far as practicable, then exit from the interior via The Gambia, if possible… He packed no more scientific equipment than a sextant, a magnetic compass and a thermometer” (McLynn, 13-14). “Until the publication of Park’s book in 1799, hardly anything was known about the interior of Africa… 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 [natives], have remained of lasting value” (PMM). In it Park chronicles his numerous misadventures, including his capture by the Arab chief Ali, and reveals many of the secrets of the Gambia hinterland. “In 1805, Park set out on his second Niger journey at a bad time of the year. His party of 44 Europeans died one by one, and the five survivors, in their endeavors to force their way through to the termination of the Niger, were all drowned in an attempt to escape from a party of natives” (Cox). His Journal is based on letters and notebooks delivered by Park’s guide to Gambia on the eve before the explorer’s death. Bound with both half titles. PMM 253. Cox I, 394-95. Hosken, 154. Armorial bookplate.

Plates and text clean and fine, tape repair to page 99, expert repairs to joints and corners.