African Researches
Or, Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa

An 1802 work reporting on the exploits of explorers in Africa, including Mungo Park and Friedrich Hornemann.

9781108032674, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 November 2011

460 pages, 5 maps
29.7 x 21 x 2.4 cm, 1.09 kg

The founding of the African Association in 1788 was arguably the starting point of the European race to explore Africa. The organisation lay behind many of the most famous expeditions to Africa at the end of the eighteenth century, including those of Mungo Park, Friedrich Hornemann and John Lewis Burckhardt. This volume, published in 1802, includes fascinating details of their expeditions. We read of the failure of earlier projects, and Sir Joseph Banks' recommendation of Hornemann to the Association, stating that 'his youth, his prudence … and lively zeal' would make him a fine 'acquisition'. Of Mungo Park, the Association heard that he was 'a young man of no mean talents'. Alongside the insights into the preparations for the expeditions, the volume includes letters and detailed accounts from both Park and Hornemann, and meticulous contemporary maps, providing a unique picture of the earliest days of exploration in Africa.

Part I: Transactions and correspondence of the Society, from the date of the last publication, in 1792, to the period of the general meeting, in May, 1797
Transactions and correspondence, etc. to May, 1798
Abstract of Mungo Park's Travels from the River Gambia to the Niger, in the Years 1795–6–7, with geographical illustrations and maps Major James Rennell, F.R.S
Part II: Transactions and correspondence, to May, 1799
Transactions and correspondence, to May, 1800
Transactions and correspondence, to May, 1801
F. Horneman's journal of his travels to Siwah, and to Fezzan, in the years 1797–8
Observations on F. Horneman's description of the country and antiquities of Siwah, with reference to ancient accounts of the oasis and Temple of Ammon Sir William Young, Bart. F.R.S.
A memoir, containing various informations respecting the interior of Africa, transmitted from Mourzouk, 1799 F. Horneman
Geographical illustrations of the travels, and of the informations of F. Horneman, with maps Major James Rennell, F.R.S.
Observations on the language of Siwah, in a letter to the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. William Marsden, Esq. F.R.S.
List of the Society, May, 1802.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]