IN DARKEST AFRICA: Or the Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria by Stanley, Henry M - 1891

New York: Scribner's Sons, 1891. Second printing, issued the year following the first. Two volumes complete with 3 folding maps in rear pockets: "A Map of the Great Forest Region Showing the Routes of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition from the River Congo to the Victoria Nyanza" (approximately 31 x 22") in Volume I; "A Map of the Route of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition Through Africa" (approximately 27 x 16.125") and "A Map of Emin Pasha's Province" (approximately 10.75 x 11.125") in Volume II. 8vo gilt-stamped green cloth boards; image of African continent in darker green/black on fronts and of Stanley in gilt on spines; top edges brown; 547 pp. and 540 pp., respectively. Henry Morton Stanley was a Welsh-American journalist and explorer known for "finding" Dr. David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary on an expedition to discover the source of the Nile who was thought to be lost. IN DARKEST AFRICA is Stanley's account as leader of the controversial "Emin Pasha Relief Expedition," a mission plagued by violence, disease, high casualties and scandals involving European members of the expedition (The British Library website). Maps show small splits at few fold intersections otherwise near fine. Books are very good to near fine with moderate foxing to tissue-protected frontis portraits of Stanley in both volumes, cloth lightly rubbed at edges, and spines just slightly shaken. Still, a bright and quite attractive set.