In Darkest Africa by STANLEY, Henry M - 1890: Or the Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,, 1890. First US edition, first printing. Stanley's famous account of his expedition to relieve Emin Pasha (Eduard Schnitzer), the beleaguered Ottoman governor of equatorial Sudan, contains some of his most celebrated writing, especially his account of the tortuous 450-mile passage through the dense Ituri rain forest. Stanley's dealings with Emin Pasha, who proved singularly resistant to being "rescued", his abandonment of his own rear column and his wider motives for his mission have all come under suspicion then and since, but the book remains a classic of African exploration. In the course of the journey Stanley met Roger Casement, then in service on the Congo, "discovered" the great snow-capped range of Ruwenzori, the Mountains of the Moon, a new lake which he named the Albert Edward Nyanza and a large south-western extension of Lake Victoria. First published in 1890 (in London), In Darkest Africa was quickly translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch, while sales of the English trade editions reached 150,000 copies. 2 volumes, octavo (220 x 143 mm). Original green pebble-grain cloth, titles and Stanley's bust gilt to spines, front boards lettered in gilt with silhouette of Africa blocked in blind and partially filled in black, brown endpapers. Photogravure portrait frontispiece to each volume, 52 engraved plates of which one in colour (the sketch of Ruwenzori in volume 2), numerous illustrations to the text, 3 folding colour maps in end-pockets, that in volume 1 opening to approx. 60 x 80 cm. Ticket of the Publishers and Booksellers Protective Association to the rear free endpaper of volume 1. Some light rubbing to extremities, trivial pale mottling to covers, section of superficial cracking to rear inner hinge of volume 1, maps with a few short splits along folds and small closing holes at intersections of folds. An excellent copy in the attractive original cloth, unique to the US edition. Howgego IV S60; Speake pp. 1132-35.