A vigorous history, by a sympathetic and patient fellow traveler
(Letters from Egypt, 1988, etc.), of the long-ago efforts by
European explorers to reach a fabled African city. It's still not
the easiest thing to reach Timbuktu, out on a bend of the Niger
River in the Malian desert. In the 18th and 19th centuries,
Europeans wanting to find the city, whose existence was barely a
rumor to them, and to open up the Sahara to their trade faced more
obstacles still: a lack of reliable maps; an Ottoman Empire to the
east that instructed the Muslim faithful that allowing Europeans to
pass by "is betraying your Sovereign (the Ottoman Emperor), your
religion, and every Mahometan"; actively hostile populations
fearing the presence among them of possible slavers and spies;
Bedouin and Tuareg bands only too glad to rob and kill, and more,
all on top of the inclement natural conditions and lack of
amenities. Undeterred, the great botanist Joseph Banks gathered
fellow scientists, scholars, and explorers to found a private group
called the African Association, which would sponsor expeditions
and, at the same time, work to abolish the slave trade. Its
founding and first-generation members numbered some astonishingly
accomplished men, among them Banks himself, the navigator John
Ledyard ("independent America's first explorer"), the young soldier
Daniel Houghton, the gloriously named Scottish traveler Mungo Park.
Later generations of African Association members were no less well
credentialed, and many of them suffered enormously to accumulate
bits and pieces of knowledge about the Niger River and the way to
the African desert interior. Sattin's anecdote-laced tales of their
likes, and of the deeds and misadventures of dimly remembered men
such as Swiss-born Jean Louis Burckhardt (who sagely remarked, "It
is a less fatiguing duty to perform travels than to write them
down") and Gordon Laing (the first European known to have entered
Timbuktu), are wholly memorable and, overall, offer fitting tribute
to the work of the African Association in all its multifaceted
glory. A pleasure for students of exploration, as well as for
armchair travelers. (Kirkus Reviews)
The history of the African Association, the world's first
geographical society, dedicated to the exploration of the interior
of a continent known only through legend and vague report. Africa
was once seen as an El Dorado - a gold-encrusted continent of hope
and prosperity, where the ancient civilisations of the Phoenicians
and the Egyptians might have survived intact. The African
Association, the world's first geographical society, set itself the
task of revealing the mysteries of the interior of Africa. Founded
in 1788 by a group of London-based gentlemen, made famous by the
amazing exploits of its adventurers, for forty-three years it was
engaged in a quest for geographical knowledge, personal glory,
immense wealth and the fulfilment of national ambitions. There are
two strands to the narrative. First there are the people who
planned and paid for expeditions, the geographers, scholars,
politicians, humanitarian activists and sharp-eyed traders, the
richest commoner in England and two former prime ministers among
them. Theirs is a lively tale of tavern meetings, court lobbying
and salon intrigue during one of the most dramatic periods of world
history. Then there are the adventurers, a mixed group of ex-cons
and social outcasts - British, French, Germans and Americans among
them - who went to the magical continent in search of glory and the
unknown. They included Mungo Park, whose account of his travels was
a bestseller for more than a century, and Jean Louis Burckhardt,
discoverer of Petra and Abu Simbel. Each of their journeys was
extraordinary, packed with drama and excitement, made notable by
geographical discoveries and, with very few exceptions, ending in
death. An outstanding account of a unique period characterised by
the passion, ambition, courage and sheer sense of adventure of its
participants.
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