Samuel White Baker led a varied and exciting life. He was an explorer, engineer, military and civilian officer, big game hunter, and probably anything else he wanted to be. In his earlier years, he built a settlement in Ceylon, where he lived with his wife and children. After his wife died, he put the kids in care of a sister and began to travel. As an engineer, he built bridges in eastern Europe. On a hunting trip back to Scotland, he met a leader of the Sikhs, whom he accompanied on an extensive hunting trip through Europe. While in Bulgaria, he came upon a white slave girl and fell in love. Unfortunately, he was outbid for her. No problem. He bribed her guards and the two escaped. They married and remained closely together for the rest of his life. Supposedly, she was the daughter of royalty who had been captured during a revolution, though it is possible this story was romanticized. Whatever was the case, she was not an uneducated woman, so there must have been something to it. Perhaps her background influenced Baker's views, as he was a strong abolitionist, and in 1869, he was hired by the Egyptian ruler to lead a military mission to disrupt the slave trade in the inland regions of Egypt. This is the subject of his book, Ismailia: a narrative of the expedition to Central Africa for the suppression of the slave trade. This is a first American edition, published in 1875. Item 13. €275 (US $366).
Among the most famous of African explorers is David Livingstone, missionary, doctor, and finder of regions in the heart of Africa never before seen by Europeans. His desire to explore became an obsession, and he lost contact with the outside world for years. It led to his discovery by Henry Stanley, and the famous quote, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.” In his later years, in poor health, Livingtone had relentlessly explored the area looking for the sources of the Nile. It is an account of these later years that appears in the book, The Last Journals in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death. When the isolated Livingstone ran out of paper and ink, he wrote over the type on old newspapers with sap as ink. He gave his journals to Stanley to take back home. Item 198 is a first American edition from 1875. €195 (US $260).
Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Rare Books may be reached at +31 (0)347 322 548 or info@gertjanbestebreurtje.com. Their website is www.gertjanbestebreurtje.com.
