SURGEON MAJOR PARKE'S AFRICAN JOURNEY, 1887-89 J LYONS LILLIPUT PRESS: DUBLIN 1994 1st Edition. 24 x 16 cm. xiv + 281 pp + b/w plates. Map endpapers. HB/DJ The literature of exploration and conquest mirrors the late-nineteenth-century assault on Africa, when the nations of Europe fought over outlets for their immense power and wealth. As England's oldest colony, Ireland aided this imperial mission. Surgeon-major Thomas teazle Parke was born in Kilmore, co. Roscommon, in 1857 and educated in Dublin at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He served with the British in Egypt during Arabi's 1882 revolt and on the 1884-85 Nile expedition to relieve general Gordon, besieged by the Mahdi in Khartoum. In 1887 began the adventure of Parke's life when he was chosen as medical officer to Stanley's Emin Pasha relief expedition. The nightmarish three-year journey took them from Banana Point to Zanzibar, crossing the Congo (encountering Roger Casement), up-river to Yambuya and through the great unknown Ituri rainforests to Lake Albert in Equatoria, where a tranquil Emin Pasha was found, distantly menaced by dervishes. Parke's subsequent book, My Personal Experiences In Equatorial Africa (1891), 'One of the great epics of Victorian travel', was a best-seller of its day. The discovery of an original diary, hitherto-unknown notebooks and also private letters unseen by students of Africana, give a fascinating reading of the original narrative while establishing a psychological basis for a secret literary partnership with Dr John Knott and an account of Parke's reluctant friendship with Henry Morton Stanley. Thomas Heazle Parke — Bwana Doctari — died suddenly in his thirty-sixth year and was buried with military honours at Drumsna, the Shannon-side village near his home. Public accolades and memorials to the discoverer of the 'mountains of the moon' followed, but this Irish Victorian hero became largely forgotten. With the passing of the centenary of Parke's death, surgeon major Parke's African journey remedies this, combining biographical exploration with a lively portrayal of events central to Africa's colonial past.

SURGEON MAJOR PARKE'S
AFRICAN JOURNEY
1887-89

J. B. LYONS

LILLIPUT PRESS: DUBLIN
1994

First Edition.
The literature of exploration and conquest mirrors the late-nineteenth-century assault on Africa, when the nations of Europe fought over outlets for their immense power and wealth. As England's oldest colony, Ireland aided this imperial mission.

Surgeon-major Thomas Heazle Parke was born in Kilmore, Co. Roscommon, in 1857 and educated in Dublin at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He served with the British in Egypt during Arabi's 1882 revolt and on the 1884-85 Nile expedition to relieve general Gordon, besieged by the Mahdi in Khartoum.

In 1887 began the adventure of Parke's life when he was chosen as medical officer to Stanley's Emin Pasha relief expedition. The nightmarish three-year journey took them from Banana Point to Zanzibar, crossing the Congo (encountering Roger Casement), up-river to Yambuya and through the great unknown Ituri rainforests to Lake Albert in Equatoria, where a tranquil Emin Pasha was found, distantly menaced by dervishes.

Parke's subsequent book, My Personal Experiences In Equatorial Africa (1891), 'One of the great epics of Victorian travel', was a best-seller of its day. The discovery of an original diary, hitherto-unknown notebooks and also private letters unseen by students of Africana, give a fascinating reading of the original narrative while establishing a psychological basis for a secret literary partnership with Dr John Knott and an account of Parke's reluctant friendship with Henry Morton Stanley.

Thomas Heazle Parke — Bwana Doctari — died suddenly in his thirty-sixth year and was buried with military honours at Drumsna, the Shannon-side village near his home.

Public accolades and memorials to the discoverer of the 'mountains of the moon' followed, but this Irish Victorian hero became largely forgotten. With the passing of the centenary of Parke's death, surgeon major Parke's African journey remedies this, combining biographical exploration with a lively portrayal of events central to Africa's colonial past.

24 x 16 cm. xiv + 281 pp + b/w plates. Map endpapers.

Very good + condition, ends of spine lightly bumped otherwise very clean and tidy.





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