A very RARE and beautiful set of two books...."In Darkest Africa or the Quest, Rescue and Retreat of Emin Governor of Equatoria". Published in 1890 by Charles Scribner, FIRST American edition. Book in overall very good to FINE condition according to me. A beautiful good set with bright decorative cover. Light wear around edges and corners, light stains, shelfwear, light stains on boards and spine, now protected with mylar cover.Inside all pages and illustrations present, pages very clean in like new condition- see photos as part of description. All maps present in overall very good condition, a few repairs only. Light wear on endpapers -see photos. Binding strong. 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, or Great Congo, Forest, which he traversed not once but 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. Rarity. Very well preserved copy!!!!