The Albert N'yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources.

London: Macmillan and Co.,, 1866. First edition of Baker's account of the 1861-5 Nile expedition, "one of the most important narratives of African exploration during the Victorian era" (ODNB). The discovery of Albert N'yanza as one of the sources of the White Nile was the pinnacle of Baker's career as an African explorer. Baker's achievement was made all the more remarkable by the numerous difficulties encountered en route, including fierce resistance from Arab slave traders, who sought to prevent him from travelling further south than Gondokoro (modern-day South Sudan), and his virtual imprisonment at Kisuna by Kamrasi, king of Bunyoro (now part of Uganda). His account went through several editions and, as with all of Baker's books, contains much on big-game hunting. He hunted buffalo near the river Sobat and elephant in Latooka country and describes frequent pursuits of antelope and hippopotamus throughout the journey. Florence Baker, the wife of Samuel, "must be one of the best-kept secrets in the annals of African exploration. Her achievements were unprecedented" (Robinson). During the expedition, she learned Arabic, took charge of the health of the party, maintained a meteorological record, and aided victims of the slave trade they encountered. During their travels, she suffered sunstroke, but the pair continued to travel becoming the first Europeans to see Lake Mwitanzige, which they named Lake Albert, after Queen Victoria's consort. Provenance: with the armorial bookplate of explorer James Lamont (1828-1913) on the front pastedowns and his library label on the front free endpapers. Lamont sailed thousands of miles in Arctic waters, "recording his voyages in Seasons with the Sea-Horse (1861) and Yachting in the Arctic Seas (1876), both of which contain information about land and marine natural history and navigation, tides, currents, and meteorology" (ODNB). He, like Baker, had a prodigious taste for hunting. Though unmarked as such, this copy was previously in the stock of the legendary bookseller and collector Franklin Brooke-Hitching. The copy from his library, in the original cloth, was sold at Sotheby's in 2014. 2 vols, octavo (215 x 130 mm). Double-portrait engraved frontispiece in vol. I of Baker and his wife Florence by C. H. Jeens, tinted lithographic frontispiece in vol. II, 12 wood-engraved plates, folding colour map, additional colour route map, wood-engravings in the text. Contemporary pale polished calf by Maclehose of Glasgow, spines with raised bands, elaborately gilt in compartments, red and brown morocco labels, gilt border on covers, marbled endpapers and edges. Spines slightly sunned, a few spots of rubbing or scuffing, folding map with corners clipped and paper repair to verso, minor foxing mostly to prelims. A very good copy. Czech Africa, p. 15; Howgego I B10; Ibrahim-Hilmy I, p. 49; Robinson, p. 3; Theakstone, p. 14.