FOUR THOUSAND MILES OF AFRICAN TRAVEL
A PERSONAL RECORD OF A JOURNEY UP THE NILE
AND THROUGH THE SOUDAN
TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

ALVAN S. SOUTHWORTH
Secretary of the American Geographical Society

BAKER, PRATT & COMPANY, NEW YORK
1875

First edition.
“MR. SOUTHWORTH, we may at once state, has broken no new ground; he has simply followed what are now considered beaten paths, although fifteen years ago there would have been few European footprints on the route; nevertheless, Mr. Southworth has gathered much useful information. This is given to the public in an agreeable form, with a tinge of American humour in some descriptions that breaks the usual monotony of a book of travels”. Nature review.

Like Henry Stanley, Southworth was employed by James Gordon Bennett as a correspondent for The Herald newspaper in New York.

“About 1872, Mr. Bennett sent Southworth on an expedition to Africa. The young explorer started out with a large caravan an an escort furnished by the Khédive. He met "Chinese " Gordon, Gen. Sir Samuel Baker, and won and retained their friendship. This was a newspaper expedition and Mr. Southworth was wont to tell his friends afterward that he turned in the biggest expense bill that ever a newspaper was called upon to pay. "It was between $40,000 and $50,000," he would relate to his cronies, and was largely for elephants, guns, and n*****s." NYT obituary.

22 x 15 cm. xi + 381 pp + tissue guarded plates.

Good condition. Cloth worn on the edges. Hinges cracking. Damp stain to the bottom edge of the early paged. Page 111/112 torn and repaired with archival tape. Pencil inscription on the first two blank pages.