This is the first of several volumes on the exploration of the Niger following its discovery by Mingo Park. It begins with the travels of Friedrich Hornemann and then leaps a quarter of a century to the great journey of Alexander Gordon Laing. The travels of Lyon, Oudney, Denham and Clapperton will be the subject of later volumes. Book I consists of an edited text of Hornemann's journal of his travels from Cairo to Murzuk between 1797 and 1798 together with an introduction by Mr Bovill. Book II , on Laing's mission to Timbucktu from 1824 until his death in 1826, has been built up from miscellaneous material drawn from various contemporary sources. All the more important contemporary documents, whether in Laing's hand or not, have been printed exactly as they were written, but the fragmentary material which can be drawn from less important letters and official despatches has been turned into editorial notes which are interpolated in the text. Continued in Second Series 128-130. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1964.