London: Macmillan and Co., 1874. First edition. Two octavo volumes in publisher's green cloth with gilt to spines and boards. Brown endpapers. Collating vii, 448, [56, publisher's catalog]; viii, 588 and including fifty-one full page plates and two maps with colored outlines. Overall, an excellent copy of a book usually found in less-than-desirable condition.

An explorer and naturalist, Baker was also an abolitionist whose travels fueled his anger at the injustice of human trafficking through the slave trade. In 1861, his first tour to explore the sources of the Nile also made him eye-witness to the horrors of slavery in Central Africa. The present work documents his work "to eradicate the slave trade at the behest of Khedive Ismail of Egypt" and with the support of the British monarchy, who bestowed upon him "unlimited powers, with the rank of pasha and governor general of the Equatorial Nile Basin, for four years" (Peduto).

A classic in its own right. (Item #3562)