For your consideration is 1890 First Edition "In Darkest Africa", Volumes I & II, by Henry M. Stanley, Charles Scribner's Sons publisher. "In Darkest Africa or the Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin Governor of Equatoria" is Stanley's own account of his last adventure on the African continent. Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) was a Welsh-American journalist and explorer who had made his name after ‘finding’ Dr. David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary and explorer who the western world had lost contact with while on an expedition to discover the source of the Nile. After ‘finding’ Livingstone, Stanley continued to explore the African continent; between 1886 and 1890. He led the expedition for the relief of Emin Pasha. In Darkest Africa (1890) is his account as leader of the controversial Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. The mission was plagued by violence, disease, high casualties and scandals involving Europeans members of the expedition. Perhaps no adventurer is more closely connected with Africa than Lord Stanley, whose various expeditions did more to reveal the nature of that continent than any modern explorer. His 1887 mission to relieve the besieged governor of Egypt, his last mission to Africa, ended miserably when Stanley arrived only to learn that the governor did not care to be relieved, but instead was angry at the Englishman for interfering in his affairs. This account contains the harrowing details of Stanley’s journey through the nearly impenetrable Ituri Forest, or Great Congo, which he traversed three times over the course of his travels. The conditions were brutal; sometimes the expedition could achieve no more than three or four hundred yards an hour. Along the way, Stanley compiled important data on the Pygmies and discovered the Ruwenzori, or “Mountains of the Moon.” The perilous journey nearly cost Stanley his life, and only a third of the men with whom he set out returned alive. At the turn of that century, the interior of the African continent was largely unknown to the American and European public. The books show two steel engravings and 150 illustrations and maps (point of interest: it is very Rare to have the maps complete in both volumes which this collection includes). The green cloth bound gold gilt stamped illustrated hardcovers exhibit wear to the covers, spine loose at the boards but are in good overall condition. Intact pages of both Volumes I and II exhibit age tanning and slight foxing. The measurements of these books are 6"W x 9"L x 1.75"D each, the combined weight 5lb 14oz.