Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa: Performed Under the Direction and Patronage of the African Association, in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. By... Surgeon. With an Appendix, Containing Geographical Illustrations of Africa. By Major Rennell

London: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. for the Author, 1799.. Second edition. 4to. xxviii, 372, xcii, (2) pp. Contemporary full speckled calf sometime rebacked, spine with raised bands, gilt lettered red label, early armorial bookplate of a William Cumming to the pastedowns. Portrait frontispiece, 5 plates and 3 folding maps plus two pages of music to the rear. Very good. Proposed by his patron Sir Joseph Banks, Park was charged by the African Association to explore the course of the Niger, four previous expeditions having failed. He succeeded in reaching the river and following it for about 100 miles before exhaustion and lack of supplies following a four month imprisonment forced him to turn back. He returned to Africa in 1805 for another attempt, during which he was killed. "Park's Travels.. has become a classic of travel literature, and its scientific observations on the botany and meteorology of the region, and on the social and domestic life of the [Africans], have remained of lasting value... Park did not solve the problem of the Niger... but he set the further exploration of the region in the right direction..." (Printing and the Mind of Man 253).