Park,M. Lot n° 1507

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa. A new ed. in two vol. 2 vols. - Vol. 1: Travels in 1795, 1796, and 1797. London, Murray 1816. 4°. With gest. portrait frontispiece, 3 folded. copper engraved maps, 5 copper plates and 1 sheet of engraved music notes. Music notes. XVIII p., 1 leaf, 458 pp. - (vol. 2): The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa in the year 1805. Together with other documents relating to the same mission. 2nd ed. London, Murray 1815. with 1 folded. Engraved map. XVII p., 1 leaf, 373 pp. Ldrbde. d. Zt. (very strong traces of use). Lowndes VII, 1775. DNB XV, 218 ff - 2nd edition of both explorations into the interior of West Africa. Mungo Park is, along with James Bruce, the most important English explorer of Africa. On the 1st voyage, he explored the course of the Niger; from the 2nd voyage, which took him beyond Timbuktu, Park did not return; he remained lost. But Park was able to give his travel journal to the native leader Issaco, who delivered it with last letters in Gambia. "He was the first European in modern times to strike the Niger river.... His travels aroused a keen public interest in African discovery and development" (DNB). - Some light spotting, 1 map loose. - Bookplate.