A Labyrinth of Kingdoms by Steve Kemper

Author:Steve Kemper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2012-06-05T04:00:00+00:00

COOLEY WAS NOT the only deskbound scholar who presumed to dictate Barth’s path, though he was in the minority about which path to take. Nearly all the recent letters from Europe, wrote Barth, assumed that he and Overweg “should be able, without any great exertion, and in a short space of time, to cross the whole of the unknown region of equatorial Africa, and reach the southeastern coast.” He admitted that he had once hoped to make that journey, but after more than two years in Central Africa he now believed that it would take years more of expensive hardship. Neither his health nor his means were up to it.

So he was relieved when Palmerston held out the possibility of Timbuktu—certainly distant and difficult to reach, but not unthinkable, despite Cooley’s opinion. “To this plan, therefore, I turned my full attention,” he wrote, “and in my imagination dwelt with delight upon the thought of succeeding in the field of the glorious career of Mungo Park.” Park’s account had been his sole literary companion in Bagirmi, and perhaps helped tilt him toward Timbuktu.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.