Description

The task of the Editor of these volumes has been principally one of arrangement and compression. The late lamented Mr. James Richardson left behind him a copious journal, comprised in eight small but closely-written volumes, besides a vast heap of despatches and scattered memoranda; and, at first sight, it seemed to me that it would be necessary to melt the whole down into a narrative in the third person. On attentively studying the materials before me, however, I perceived that Mr. Richardson had written in most places with a view to publication; and that, had he lived, he would soon have brought what, on a cursory examination, appeared a mere chaotic mass, into a shape that would have accorded with his own idea of a book of travels. Such being the case, I thought it best-in order to leave the stamp of authenticity on this singular record of enterprise-to do little more than the author would himself have done. In the form of a diary, therefore-written sometimes with Oriental naïveté-the reader will here find what may be called the domestic history of one of the most successful expeditions undertaken for the exploration of Central Africa. I believe it would have been possible to get up a work of more temporary interest from the same materials; but this could only have been done by sacrificing truthfulness of detail. In the present form, Mr. Richardson's journal will always remain as an authority on the geography and present condition of a large portion of the Saharan desert, hitherto unvisited, at any rate undescribed.