Bøger i Cambridge Library Collection - African Studies serien

Later known as an administrator in Australia and founder of one of Tasmania's earliest settlements, William Paterson (1755-1810) was an army officer, naturalist and friend of Joseph Banks. Keenly interested in botany from childhood, in 1777 he was dispatched to Cape Colony on an expedition to collect plant specimens, many of which remain in the Natural History Museum. His accounts, published in 1789, are the observations and impressions of one of the first Europeans to venture into the south-east of modern-day South Africa. On his return to England he brought with him the skin and skeleton of a giraffe, which remained on show in the British Museum until the early twentieth century. He writes clearly and engagingly of the people, flora and fauna, assuring the reader that the work is 'a series of facts, noted down upon the spot, without any after additions'.

In 1816, an expedition to Africa, commanded by Captain James Tuckey (1776-1816), set out on HMS Congo, accompanied by the storeship Dorothy. The aim was to discover more about African geography - of which relatively little was then known - and in particular the connection between the River Congo, also known as the Zaire, and the Niger Basin. The mission failed when eighteen crew members, including Tuckey, died from virulent fevers and attacks by hostile natives. However, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty gave permission for publication of Tuckey's notes, and those of his Norwegian botanist Christen Smith (1785-1816), who also died during the voyage. First published in 1818, the work comprises their narratives of the doomed expedition. At the time it aroused Western interest in Africa, encouraging further research, and it remains of interest to geographers, botanists and scholars of African studies today.

After sailing on a crowded steamer from Marseilles, Henry Baker Tristram (1822-1906) arrived in Algiers in the winter of 1856, and began preparations for an expedition into the Sahara. Although the northern areas had been well documented by the occupying French forces, the south was little travelled by Europeans. A keen naturalist and later a Fellow of the Linnaean Society, Tristram made meticulous preparations for collecting specimens, and kept a thorough journal as he travelled. This book, one of the first English reports of the South Sahara, published in 1860, is an almost exact transcription of that journal. Travelling with a tin of chocolate and a collection of fine silk handkerchiefs to trade, Tristram made notes on a host of topics, from the flight of flamingos to the government and customs of the native Touareg. His account is still a valuable resource for students of the history of science.

Edward Vizetelly (1847-1903) was the son of the publisher Henry Vizetelly and a perceptive war correspondent. He began his career for the Daily News and New York Times, covering the Franco-Prussian War, where he narrowly escaped being shot as a spy. This work, published in 1901, recounts the next period of his career, with vivid descriptions of people and places. In 1878, Cyprus was ceded to Britain by Turkey, and Vizetelly, then in Athens, was sent to report on the Island, where he remained for four years. In 1882, he moved to Egypt, where Arab unrest led to the massacre of Europeans in Cairo and the bombardment of Alexandria by British warships. On his return to Europe in 1889, he was commissioned by the owner of the New York Herald to find H. M. Stanley, using Zanzibar as his base. He concludes with a brief summary of subsequent events in Africa.

After many years of relatively peaceful coexistence, a dispute over taxation in 1906 stirred thousands of Zulus into bloody revolt against the British in Natal. Following the rebellion's defeat, James Stuart (1868-1942), an expert on Zulu customs and history, was commissioned to write the official history of military operations. It later became a private project of much broader scope. Providing a thoroughly researched account of the rebellion, Stuart wrote using the full breadth of his knowledge of Africa, drawing on the contacts and materials that became available to him during his time as an intelligence officer in the Natal Field Artillery. First published in 1913, the work also covers the administration of the Zulu territories and goes on to investigate the aftermath of the rebellion, including the arrest and imprisonment of the Zulu king, Dinuzulu.

The founding of the African Association in 1788 was arguably the starting point of the European race to explore Africa. The organisation lay behind many of the most famous expeditions to Africa at the end of the eighteenth century, including those of Mungo Park, Friedrich Hornemann and John Lewis Burckhardt. This volume, published in 1802, includes fascinating details of their expeditions. We read of the failure of earlier projects, and Sir Joseph Banks' recommendation of Hornemann to the Association, stating that 'his youth, his prudence ... and lively zeal' would make him a fine 'acquisition'. Of Mungo Park, the Association heard that he was 'a young man of no mean talents'. Alongside the insights into the preparations for the expeditions, the volume includes letters and detailed accounts from both Park and Hornemann, and meticulous contemporary maps, providing a unique picture of the earliest days of exploration in Africa.

Written by Rosanna ('Rose') Blennerhassett (c.1844-1907), the daughter of baronet Sir Arthur Blennerhassett, this work of 1893 recounts the adventures of two Anglican nurses who worked in Umtali (now Mutare in northern Zimbabwe). In 1890 Blennerhassett sailed to Johannesburg to nurse victims of a typhoid outbreak, meeting Lucy Sleeman on board. At the end of their period of service, the pair opted to go north into Mashonaland rather than returning to England. They undertook a two-week journey of 190 miles on foot in the bush from the Pungwe river to Umtali, where they established the first hospital, in a series of beehive-shaped mud huts. The pair remained there for two years, often working without a doctor. The book recounts every aspect of their daily adventures, from baking cakes and constructing coffins out of whisky cases to bizarre encounters with witch hunters, a man-eating lion, and Cecil Rhodes.

Although he had never set foot in Africa, Scottish poet and linguist John Leyden (1775-1811) decided to publish in 1799 this compilation on 'discoveries and settlements' there, drawing from the published works of explorers. His aim was 'to exhibit the progress of discoveries at this period in North and West Africa', giving descriptions of places such as Guinea, the Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone, as well as accounts of their people. He begins the work by discussing a meeting of the African Association on 9 June 1788, where a map depicted the interior of the continent as 'an extended blank'. Leyden attempts to provide information on those unknown areas by using the travel accounts of writers - including the Scots explorer Mungo Park - who had ventured into the African interior, to put together a narrative which makes this work a valuable collection of eighteenth-century accounts by European explorers in Africa.

In 1868, eight years after his death at the hands of Abyssinian tribesmen, the memoirs of Walter Chichele Plowden (1820-60) were published in Britain, having been prepared for publication by his brother Trevor. As the first British consul appointed to Abyssinia in 1848, Plowden was in a unique position to record contemporary local history (although as consul he was not an unequivocal success), and this book contains his detailed account of all levels of Abyssinian society. A close associate of the Emperor Tewodros (Theodore), who slaughtered 2,000 people in retaliation for Plowden's death, he includes a vivid characterisation of this important figure, and provides an exceptionally useful contemporary source for the turbulent history of Abyssinia in the mid-nineteenth century. The book also includes two maps, one of the northern frontier of Abyssinia drawn by Plowden himself, and the other modelled on the British War Office map of Abyssinia.

John Dunn (1834-95) became an infamous figure ('a perfect gorilla') in Britain after his involvement in the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879. A British subject who had lived all his life in South Africa, he spent his early years learning to be an expert hunter of large game before becoming a confidant of the Zulu king Cetshwayo, quickly accumulating wealth and power; although already married, he took forty-nine wives and fathered one hundred and seventeen children. However, when war broke out he sided with the British against his former friend and patron, and was rewarded with a huge tract of territory in the former Zulu kingdom. This book, published in 1886 and edited by his friend D. C. F. Moodie (1838-91), presents his side of the story, and contains fascinating insights into an extraordinary life lived among the Zulus in the nineteenth century.

Charles Henry Robinson (1861-1925) was a Cambridge scholar who, during the 1890s, published several books on the language, literature and culture of the Hausa people of West Africa. This study, published in 1896, documents his pioneering fieldwork during which, in three months, he travelled 1500 miles across rivers, mountains, villages and towns. Public interest in the Hausa was high at the time, due to their recruitment as troops by Britain in the Ashanti conflict, and by France to consolidate French power in Madagascar. However, Robinson argues against the perception of the Hausa as primarily a warlike people, despite their formidable strength in battle. In this vivid account of his time among them, he portrays the Hausa as successful traders who excelled above all in commercial endeavours. Exploring enterprises from textiles and tobacco to hunting and river transportation, Robinson gives fascinating first-hand insights into this important African community.

John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) was a British army officer and explorer, remembered for his expeditions in search of the source of the Nile and his disputes with Richard Burton on that subject. On an expedition begun in 1856 Burton and Speke reached Lake Tanganyika together, but Speke travelled on alone to Lake Victoria. He controversially gave lectures about the lakes in London in 1859, without awaiting Burton's return. Speke returned to Africa later that year, leading an expedition organised by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore Lake Victoria and investigate whether it really was the source of the Nile. This book, published in 1863, describes the 1859 expedition's challenging and eventful journey through present-day Zanzibar, Tanzania and Uganda, and the indigenous peoples the explorers encountered. Speke made invaluable surveys of the area, but it was only after his death that his views about the Nile were finally proved correct.

First published in 1862, William Cole's journal records his experiences in the highly challenging circumstances of a trading expedition to Africa. Cole outlines in graphic detail the dangers he had to endure, and describes how he 'surmounted the most glaring difficulties'. Often displaying a wry humour, Cole's memoir speaks directly to the reader, with a tone of immediacy. In an anecdotal style, he describes the customs and costumes of the natives, and their often hostile reactions to him, and recounts how he was regularly without food, arms or assistance. The journal tells of the barbarity and cruelty he witnessed, alongside occasional acts of kindness or amusing situations. Cole's thoughts frequently revert to England, displaying his homesickness and his longing to return. Describing his life in Africa as 'a mixture of smiles and tears', Cole paints a vivid picture of a European in Africa during the mid-nineteenth century.

The success of the Victorian explorer and missionary David Livingstone's first book, Missionary Travels (1857), led to his receiving government funding in 1858 for an expedition up the Zambezi River. The trip was expected to last two years, and was intended to further commercial and scientific as well as missionary aims. However, owing to internal disagreements, illness (including the death of Livingstone's wife), drought and tribal warfare, the explorers' mission took six and a half years and achieved little apart from collecting plant and geological specimens. The upper reaches of the Zambesi proved unnavigable owing to rapids and waterfalls, and the expedition was recalled. This account, published in 1865 by Livingstone (1813-1873) and his younger brother Charles, who had accompanied him, was in part an attempt to excuse the problems which had beset the expedition, and restore Livingstone's reputation in order to gain backing for further ventures.

Major Dixon Denham (1786-1828) and Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827) were British explorers famous for their explorations in Africa. Between 1822 and 1825, they set out to investigate the lower course of the River Niger and the swamps and forests of the Guinea Coast, accompanied by the physician Dr Walter Oudney (1790-1824), who sadly died of a fever during the expedition. This important book, first published in 1826, brings together the memoirs of all three explorers to document their mission, which represented the first complete crossing of the Sahara by Europeans in recorded history. Diverse and insightful, it recounts phenomena such as the transportation of slaves from the Sudan, the salt industry in the heart of the desert, and encounters with native tribes. Providing unique insights into pre-colonial Africa, these vivid recollections remain of great interest to historians of Africa, cultural anthropologists and geographers alike.

Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), the Welsh-born explorer famous for his 1871 meeting with the missionary David Livingstone, travelled widely in Africa. First published in 1898, this is a compendium of letters written by Stanley during his travels to Bulawayo, Johannesburg and Pretoria, which lend a unique insight into colonial South Africa in the late nineteenth century. Focusing on the country's culture and commercial development, he recalls his impressions of industries such as railways, farms and gold mines, social issues such as immigration and poverty, and the contentious relations between the Boer peoples and the British colonists which led to the Second Boer War. Through his passionate exposition, we learn of his adversity towards President Kruger's policies, and his compassion for the people who he claims were left to starve because the government's priorities were military. His memoirs provide a revealing snapshot of an important period in South Africa's history.

Frederick Courteney Selous (1851-1917) was a British explorer, officer, hunter, and conservationist, famous for his work in south-east Africa. In early 1882 he embarked on an eleven-year expedition to record species that, to his great sadness, were becoming endangered. First published in 1893, these revealing memoirs document the wildlife, landscapes and people that characterised his journey. Through vivid descriptions and extensive illustrations, he recalls exhilarating adventures with lions, leopards, hyenas and crocodiles, recounts challenging treks across lakes and mountains, and describes hostile - and at times barbaric - encounters with native peoples. Detailed accounts of hunting endeavours, colonial institutions, and commercial enterprises such as gold mining, also feature in this study, which provides a unique and diverse perspective on Africa in the late nineteenth century. Insightful and revealing, Selous' experiences remain of enduring interest to geographers, anthropologists, zoologists, and all those interested in African history and culture.

John Hanning Speke (1827-64) was an officer in the British Indian Army, best known for his explorations of Africa. In the 1850s he embarked on two major expeditions there, the first, to Somalia, inspiring the second, to East Africa, during which he endeavoured to locate the source of the White Nile. This book of 1864 brings together his memoirs of both ventures, in which he draws connections between the two, and provides dramatic recollections of his endurance of captivity, attack, and tropical disease. Despite the obstacles he faced, on his second mission he identified Lake Victoria as the Nile's source; however his claims were heavily contested, as the loss of vital equipment had left questions about its altitude and extent unanswered. The lake was eventually proved to be the source after Speke's tragic death from a gunshot wound, making these memoirs a cornerstone in the historical geography of Africa.

Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890), the famous Victorian explorer, began his career in the Indian army in 1842. While in India he developed his linguistic talent, mastering more than forty different languages and dialects. He turned to writing books in the 1850s and, over the remaining forty years of his life, published dozens of works and more than one hundred articles. In this book, first published in 1856, Burton recounts his travels to Harar, a city in East Africa notorious for its slave trade activity. His plan was a challenging one, as it was believed that no European had been there before; upon arrival he claimed to be an agent of the British government and presented himself to the ruler of Harar. Burton was allowed to spend ten days there, and his account give a fascinating glimpse into a then unknown city and culture.

This work by Thomas Edward Bowdich (1791?-1824) describes the journey he made on behalf of the Royal African Company from Cape Coast Castle in West Africa into the territory of the Ashanti, a warlike tribe which had legendary resources of gold and which had been attacking European settlements along the Gold Coast. The intention was to make a peace and trade treaty with the Ashanti, and also to learn more about their culture and customs. Bowdich, not the original leader of the expedition, took control, and negotiated a treaty of mutual co-operation and trade. He returned to Europe in 1818, publishing this fascinating account in 1819, but he felt that his own efforts, and his book, did not receive the rewards they merited. He died on a second, scientific expedition to West Africa, leaving his widow, naturalist and artist Sarah (later Lee), to edit and publish his last work.

Mungo Park (1771-1806) was a Scottish surgeon and explorer. Encouraged by Sir Joseph Banks, he was sent by the African Association, in 1795, to explore the interior of Africa, forbidden to western traders. He is believed to have been the first European to reach the River Niger. His return was delayed by imprisonment and illness, and he did not arrive back in Scotland until December 1797, having been thought dead. He later went on a second expedition to Africa, and died there in 1806. This account of his earlier travels, published in 1799, was an immediate best-seller, with three editions in the first year. Park presents a straightforward account of his journey, together with observations about daily life in West Africa, with none of the arrogant superiority so often expressed by European travellers. The book includes a vocabulary of Mandinka words, plates and maps, and a geographical appendix.

This travelogue by Dr Arthur Leared (1822-1879) follows his journey through Morocco during 1872, giving a comprehensive picture of the country and its people. At this time, Morocco was a French protectorate, ruled by the Alouite dynasty, comprising a mix of tribes, cultures, races and religions. Following Leared's route south, the geography, people, culture, legal and religious practices of Morocco are all explored thoroughly, with personal memories and anecdotes of daily life. As a physician and the inventor of the binaural stethoscope, Leared was interested in the advantages of the climate for treating respiratory diseases, particularly tuberculosis, and in native medical materials and practices. He subsequently became the physician at the Portuguese embassy, and planned the foundation of a sanatorium in Tangier. A vivid and balanced account of the country, as viewed from the stance of an objective traveller as the country began to open up to Europeans.

John Lewis Burckhardt (1784-1817) was a Swiss explorer who is best remembered for his rediscovery of the ancient city of Petra in modern Jordan. In 1809 he was commissioned by the African Association to discover the source of the River Niger. Posing as a Muslim convert, Burckhardt spent two years exploring and studying Arabic and Islamic law in Aleppo, before travelling widely in Arabia and Egypt This volume, first published posthumously in 1819, contains Burckhardt's account of his two visits to Nubia (modern Upper Egypt and Sudan) in 1813 and 1814. Burckhardt was the first western scholar to explore the Sudanese Nile valley, and one of the first western explorers successfully to cross the Nubian Desert. In this valuable volume, he describes in fascinating detail the many ancient ruins along the Nile and the logistics and hardships of his desert crossing.

Hannah Kilham (1774-1832) was a missionary whose aim in her work in the Gambia and Sierra Leone was to teach children in their own indigenous languages rather than in English. In order to do so she learned the Wolof language from African sailors in London and later, in Sierra Leone, collected specimens of thirty languages through her encounters with freed slaves. The first of two publications reissued in this volume, Kilham's Report on a Recent Visit to the Colony of Sierra Leone (1828), discusses the state of education in the colony as well as the general condition of its people. The second, Claims of West Africa to Christian Instruction through the Native Languages (1830) also discusses the system of education, outlining the process of tuition, and emphasising the need for Bible translations into African languages. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=kilhha

Published in 1886, My African Travels is a succinct record of British American explorer Henry Morton Stanley's adventurous African expeditions during 1871-1884 and the results of his travels. Stanley, was commissioned by New York Herald to undertake a secret mission to find and rescue the Scottish missionary David Livingstone, who was lost in the midst of the African jungle. Stanley describes his journey through the forests and rivers of Africa and his encounters with the African wildlife, tribespeople, and Arab settlers and traders amidst the variegated beauty of places such as Unyamwezi, Usagara, Ukawendi, and Tanganika districts. Ranging over events such as Stanley's historic rescue of Livingstone to Livingstone's death and Stanley's further expeditions in Africa and his exploration and development of the Congo state, My African Travels is the saga of a passionate explorer with graphic descriptions of the vicissitudes of an African journey.

Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) is one of the best known Victorian women travellers, whose solo adventures in West Africa made her a celebrity in England. This, her second book, published in 1899, was an instant best-seller. She travelled extensively, engaging in trade both to fund her trip and to get to know the African people, rather than merely observing as an outsider. Some of her views were considered controversial - she opposed the attempts by missionaries to impose European culture on native people, and defended polygamy and even slavery. She opposed direct colonial rule, and wanted Africans to have more self-determination. Her observations and interests are wide-ranging, and she showed an acute and sympathetic understanding of West African culture and society. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=kingma

Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) is one of the best-known Victorian women travellers, whose solo adventures in West Africa made her a celebrity in England. This, her first book, published in 1897, was an instant best-seller. She travelled extensively, engaging in trade both to fund her trip and to get to know the African people, rather than merely observing as an outsider. She brought back quantities of natural specimens, three of which were named after her. On her return to England she was asked to give numerous lectures. Some of her views were considered controversial - she opposed the attempts by missionaries to impose European culture on native people, and defended polygamy and even slavery. Her observations and interests are wide-ranging, and she showed an acute and sympathetic understanding of West African culture and society. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=kingma

Sir John Barrow (1764-1848) was a distinguished British government servant whose diplomatic career took him to China and Africa, and who in forty years as Secretary to the Admiralty was responsible for promoting Arctic and Antarctic exploration, including the voyages of Sir John Ross, Sir William Parry, Sir James Clark Ross and Sir John Franklin (the last of which famously ended in disaster). Barrow's autobiography, written when he was eighty-three, depicts a life extraordinary for its range of experience and activity, from a small farm in the Furness peninsula to the court of the Emperor of China, and from an apparently settled life as a civil servant at Cape Town to the centre of affairs at a time when the British Navy's reach and influence reached their highest point. This fascinating account will be of interest to anyone interested in exploration and the history of the British Navy.

Originally published in 1900, this is the first of two volumes by the missionary W. Holman Bentley (1855-1905), documenting the pioneering work of nineteenth-century missionaries in the Congo. It sets the historical background, recounts the missionaries' objectives, and reveals the discovery of a new route to the upper river.