PREFACE. 



I had intended this record of personal adventure to 

 appear immediately after my return to Europe, in May 

 1859. The impaired health, the depression of spirits, 

 and worse still the annoyance of official correspond- 

 ence, which to me have been the sole results of African 

 Exploration, may be admitted as valid reasons for the 

 delay. 



In April, 1860, the Royal Geographical Society of 

 Great Britain honoured me by publishing a detailed paper, 

 forming the XXIXth Volume of their Journal, from 

 which the topographical descriptions contained in the 

 following pages have, with their kind permission, been 

 extracted. I have now attempted to combine with 

 geography and ethnology, a narrative of occurrences 

 and an exposition of the more popular and picturesque 

 points of view which the subject offers. 



When I communicated to my friends the publishers 

 certain intentions of writing an exclusively 4 'light work," 

 they protested against the project, stating that the 

 public appetite required the addition of stronger meat. 

 In compliance, therefore, with their suggestion, I have 

 drawn two portraits of the same object, and mingled 

 the gay with the graver details of travel, so as to 

 produce an antipathetic cento. 



