EMIN PASHA and the REBELLION AT THE EQUATOR, a Story of Nine Months' Experiences in the Last of the Soudan Provinces.

London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1890. First edition. Illustrated with numerous black and white drawings, a fold-out map, and a photographic frontis of the author, as well as a large fold-out copy of the Mahdi's Letter to Emin Pasha in Arabic demanding his surrender. 8vo, bound in publisher’s original rust cloth, lettered in gilt and pictorially decorated in black and gilt on the spine and upper cover. xxiv, 490, 2 ads. A well-preserved copy with minor age-mellowing to the spine, the gilt and pictorial decorations in good order, textblock clean and fresh, the hinges sound. SCARCE TRUE FIRST EDITION. An engrossing account of Mounteney-Jephson’s travels and harrowing experiences in the Equatorial Province from 1888-89 with Emin Pasha. He recounts in riveting detail the harsh and unfair treatment he received while in Emin’s territory and indeed of his long imprisonment there. His book revealed an unknown side of the governor’s leadership style in Africa, one which was weak and ineffective.
“It was not until I had witnessed many deplorable examples of his weakness and vacillation that I began to lose faith in his judgment, and it was not until afterwards, when I had conversed frequently with his people and himself about things in his province, and the repulse of the Mahdi’s forces four years before, that I found out that Emin had only told part of the story.”-Preface.
Mounteney-Jephson was actually sent on the mission to Emin Pasha by Henry Stanley who wrote the Prefatory Letter and also revised and collaborated on the writing of this book.
An important narrative of early English governing in Equatorial Africa.