"An action-packed recounting of one of the most famous incidents in the history of exploration. Until well into the 19th century, European geography textbooks portrayed central Africa as a vast, uncharted wasteland, almost certainly a graveyard for any outsider unwise enough to enter it. . . . In the late 1860s, [David] Livingstone and a large entourage disappeared somewhere between Zanzibar and Lake Tanganyika while poking around for the source of the Nile. Enter New York Herald correspondent Henry Morton Stanley. . . . Braving disease, difficult terrain, and all manner of deprivation, Stanley for three years [followed] Livingstone's trail, despairing of ever finding the senior explorer. . . . Fine entertainment for adventure buffs, solidly researched and fluently told."

Traces the mid-1860s expedition and disappearance of legendary explorer Dr. David Livingstone to discover the source of the Nile River and the subsequent rescue of Livingstone by upstart journalist Henry Morton Stanley, a dual quest involving extraordinary physical challenges, political intrigue, and larger-than-life personalities. Reprint.