MDCCCLIII.

LONDON:
Printed by G. Barclay, Castle St. Leicester Sq.




PREFACE.


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