Park, Mungo:

$1,000 · Offered by William Reese Company

TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR DISTRICTS OF AFRICA: PERFORMED UNDER THE DIRECTION AND PATRONAGE OF THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION, IN THE YEARS 1795, 1796, AND 1797...WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING GEOGRAPHICAL ... First New York edition, after the first London edition of the previous year, of Park's initial African expedition and adventures. Park was instructed by the African Association "to pass on to the River Niger either by way of Bambouk or by such other route as should be found most convenient, to ascertain the course, and if possible the rise and termination, of that river." Along the way he experienced almost unbelievable depredations, including robberies by local kings, imprisonment, and the loss of everything except his horse, clothing, and a pocket compass. He fell ill and would have died had a black man named Kaarta Taura not taken him in for several months. Includes the text of a "Negro Song" and a vocabulary of the Mandigo language. This American edition adds an appendix by Major Rennell giving "Geographical Descriptions of Africa."

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