TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA. VOL. I. LONDON: Printed by SPOTTISWOODE & CO. New-street Square. [Illustration: Drawn by J. M. Bernatz, from a Sketch by Dr. Barth. M. & N. Hanhart, lith. et impt. AÚDERAS. Novr. 2nd. 1850.] TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA: BEING A JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION UNDERTAKEN UNDER THE AUSPICES OF H.B.M.’S GOVERNMENT, IN THE YEARS 1849-1855. BY HENRY BARTH, PH.D., D.C.L. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL AND ASIATIC SOCIETIES, _&c. &c._ IN FIVE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, & ROBERTS. 1857. _The right of translation is reserved._ TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CLARENDON, K.G., G.C.B. ETC. ETC. ETC. HER MAJESTY’S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THESE VOLUMES, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA, MADE UNDER HIS LORDSHIP’S AUSPICES, ARE, IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT FOR MANY ACTS OF KINDNESS, Dedicated, BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, THE AUTHOR, [Illustration: DR. BARTH’S TRAVELS IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA Sheet No. 1. GENERAL SKETCH of AFRICA, Showing the ROUTES OF DR. BARTH’S TRAVELS 1850-1855. Drawn by A. Petermann. _Engraved by E. Weller._ _London, Longman & Co._] PREFACE. * * * * * On the 5th of October, 1849, at Berlin, Professor Carl Ritter informed me that the British Government was about to send Mr. Richardson on a mission to Central Africa, and that they had offered, through the Chevalier Bunsen, to allow a German traveller to join the mission, provided he was willing to contribute two hundred pounds for his own personal travelling expenses.