Two Trips to Gorilla Land 
& the Cataracts of the Congo 
by Sir Richard F. Burton

A highly recommended read!

Fascinating true-life adventure. Burton's journey through the 19th Century African jungle, along the great rivers of the Gabon and the Congo, in search of gorillas! Drugs, native women, witch doctors, cannibalism, slave traders, wild beasts - all through the eyes of one of the greatest of Victorian mavericks: imagine Darwin or Livingstone, rewritten by Edgar Rice Burroughs! 
Ebook edition contains original Parts I and II, illustrated with period prints, photos & maps of Africa, plus biographical notes. 
PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"All adult males carry arms, and would be held womanish if they were seen unweaponed. These are generally battle-axes, spears cruelly and fantastically jagged, hooked and barbed, and curious leaf-shaped knives of archaic aspect; some of the latter have blades broader than they are long, a shape also preserved by the Mpongwe. The sheaths of fibre or leather are elaborately decorated, and it is chic for the scabbard to fit so tight that the weapon cannot be drawn for five minutes; I have seen the same amongst the Somal. There are some trade-muskets, but the "hot-mouthed weapon" has not become the national weapon of the Fán. Bows and arrows are unknown; the Náyin or cross-bow peculiar to this people, and probably a native invention, not borrowed, as might be supposed, from Europe, is carried only when hunting or fighting: a specimen was exhibited in London with the gorillas. The people are said sometimes to bend it with the foot or feet like the Tupí Guaranís, the Jivaros, and other South Americans. Suffice it to remark of this weapon, with which, by the by, I never saw a decent shot made, that the détente is simple and ingenious, and that the "Ebe" or dwarf bolt is always poisoned with the boiled root of a wild shrub. It is believed that a graze is fatal, and that the death is exceedingly painful: I doubt both assertions. Most men also carry a pliable basket full of bamboo caltrops, thin splints, pointed and poisoned. Placed upon the path of a bare-footed enemy, this rude contrivance, combined with the scratching of the thorns, and the gashing cuts of the grass, must somewhat discourage pursuit. The shields of elephant hide are large, square, and ponderous. The "terrible war-axe" is the usual poor little tomahawk, more like a toy than a tool."

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Travels in West Africa (Congo Francais, Corisco and Cameroons) by Mary H. Kingsley, 1897

Vivid account of the Victorian spinster's  journey through the African jungle: tribal fetishes, tropical disease, mountains and rapids. Annotated with biographical notes, plus numerous period photos and maps of 19th Century West Africa. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"Certain African ideas about blood puzzle me. I was told by a Batanga friend, a resident white trader, that a short time previously a man was convicted of theft by the natives of a village close to him. The hands and feet of the criminal were tied together, and he was flung into the river. He got himself free, and swam to the other bank, and went for bush. He was recaptured, and a stone tied to his neck, and in again he was thrown. The second time he got free and ashore, and was recaptured, and the chief then, most regretfully, ordered that he was to be knocked on the head before being thrown in for a third time. This time palaver set, but the chief knew that he would die himself, by spitting the blood he had spilt, from his own lungs, before the year was out. I inquired about the chief when I passed this place, more than eighteen months after, and learnt from a native that the chief was dead, and that he had died in this way. The objection thus was not to shedding blood in a general way, but to the shedding in the course of judicial execution. There may be some idea of this kind underlying the ingenious and awful ways the negroes have of killing thieves, by tying them to stakes in the rivers, or down on to paths for the driver ants to kill and eat, but this is only conjecture."

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The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, and the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs, by Sir Samuel White Baker

The original text, from one of Baker's most daring colonial adventures. His account of a 14 month voyage through the dangerous tribes of Abyssinia, his encounters with wild animals, culminating in the discovery of Lake Albert, for which Baker was knighted.  Annotated with biographical notes, plus many of the original line art illustrations, plus period photos and maps of 19th Century Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Copies of the original publication are scarce, and expensive. Buy this ebook version and enjoy Baker's classic for a fraction of the price. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"Upon my arrival at the tents, I found the camp redolent of musk from the flesh of the crocodile, and the people were quarrelling for the musk glands, which they had extracted, and which are much prized by the Arab women, who wear them strung like beads upon a necklace.

A crocodile possesses four of such glands; they vary in size according to the age of the reptile, but they are generally about as large as a hazel-nut, when dried. Two glands are situated in the groin, and two in the throat, a little in advance of the fore-legs. I have noticed two species of crocodiles throughout all the rivers of Abyssinia, and in the White Nile. One of these is of a dark brown colour, and much shorter and thicker in proportion than the other, which grows to an immense length, an is generally of a pale greenish yellow. Throughout the Atbara, crocodiles are extremely mischievous and bold; this can be accounted for by the constant presence of Arabs and their flocks, which the crocodiles have ceased to fear, as they exact a heavy tribute in their frequent passages of the river. The Arabs assert that the dark-coloured, thick-bodied species is more to be dreaded than the other.

The common belief that the scales of the crocodile will stop a bullet is very erroneous. If a rifle is loaded with the moderate charge of two and a half drachms it will throw an ounce ball through the scales of the hardest portion of the back; but were the scales struck obliquely, the bullet might possibly glance from the surface, as in like manner it would ricochet from the surface of water. The crocodile is so difficult to kill outright, that people are apt to imagine that the scales have resisted their bullets. The only shots that will produce instant death are those that strike the brain or the spine through the neck."

Travels in Nubia 

by the 19th century explorer Johann Ludwig (aka John Lewis) Burckhardt, first published in 1819. 

This book features three separate memoirs: 

Burckhardt was a pioneering European traveller. He describes the landscapes and customs of North Africa in captivating detail.  This was one of the first accounts by a European to travel in the lands of Arabia. Burckhardt later published several other travelogues on the region, including Travels in Arabia, and Travels in Syria and the Holy Land.

This electronic PDF edition features the original two volume text by the Swiss explorer, enhanced with hyperlinks and biographical notes, plus period prints and maps of Syria and Egypt.

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Travels in Arabia

by Johann Ludwig (aka John Lewis) Burckhardt, first published in 1829

One of the first narratives by a European traveler to explore the desert lands of Arabia. This edition features the original two volume text by the Swiss explorer, enhanced with hyperlinks and biographical notes, and illustrated with period prints and maps of Arabia. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

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Travels in Morocco by James Richardson, 1860

Richardson's journey through Morocco, visiting the Imperial Cities and rural Moorish villages. Includes unique eye-witness descriptions of traditional customs and ceremonies, Arab, Jewish and Berber life, local sports and combat, snake-charming and white slavery. 

This electronic edition features the original text from Volumes 1 and 2, illustrated with period photos and maps of 19th Century Morocco, and with bibliographic notes. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"To describe the dresses of the bride would be tedious, as she was carried away every hour and redressed, going through and exhibiting to public view, with the greatest patience, the whole of her bridal wardrobe. Her face was artistically painted; cheeks vermillion; lips browned, with an odoriferous composition; eye-lashes blackened with antimony; and on the forehead and tips of the chin little blue stars. The palms of the hands and nails were stained with henna, or brown-red, and her feet were naked, with the toe-nails and soles henna-stained. She was very young, perhaps not more than thirteen, and hugely corpulent, having been fed on paste and oil these last six months for the occasion. The bridegroom, on the contrary, was a man of three times her age, tall, lank and bony, very thin, and of sinister aspect. The woman was a little lump of fat and flesh, apparently without intelligence, whilst the man was a Barbary type of Dickens' Fagan."

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Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, 1855, by Captain Richard Francis Burton

(Originally published by the notorious Leonard Smithers, friend and patron of Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde. Edited by Isabel Burton)

The original text from Volumes 1 and 2 of this fascinating travelogue by the famous and erudite Victorian soldier, linguist and explorer, who travelled Arabia in disguise, often posing as a doctor; seventy years before Lawrence of Arabia. Filled with colorful characters: "kayf"or hashish-smoking policemen, fakirs, slaves, courtesans, strange ceremonies, sudden violent deaths, constant aphrodisiac and drug-taking. 

It has lost none of its power over the years. With period illustrations, maps, selected footnotes and appendices; annotated with biographical notes. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"Ali Agha welcomed me politely, and seeing me admire the preparations, bade me beware how I suspected an Albanian of not knowing how to drink; he made me sit by him on the bed, threw his dagger to a handy distance, signalled me to do the same, and prepared to begin the bout. Taking up a little tumbler, in shape like those from which French postilions used to drink la goutte, he inspected it narrowly, wiped out the interior with his forefinger, filled it to the brim, and offered it to his guest with a bow. I received it with a low salam, swallowed its contents at once, turned it upside down in proof of fair play, replaced it upon the floor, with a jaunty movement of the arm, somewhat like a pugilist delivering a "rounder," bowed again, and requested him to help himself. The same ceremony followed on his part Immediately after each glass,-and rapidly the cup went about,-we swallowed a draught of water, and ate a spoonful of the meat or the Salatah in order to cool our palates. Then we re-applied ourselves to our pipes, emitting huge puffs, a sign of being "fast" men, and looked facetiously at each other,-drinking being considered by Moslems a funny and pleasant sort of sin.

The Albanian captain was at least half seas over when we began the bout, yet he continued to fill and to drain without showing the least progress towards ebriety. I in vain for a time expected the bad-masti (as the Persians call it,) the horse play, and the gross facetiae, which generally accompany southern and eastern tipsiness Ali Agha, indeed, occasionally took up the bottle of perfume, filled the palm of his right hand, and dashed it in my face: I followed his example, but our pleasantries went no further."

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Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon

Sir Samuel White Baker

The original evocative and amusing text, from this ripping colonial adventure. Hunting and fishing stories from 1845, plus ethnic observations, annotated with biographical notes, plus vintage photos, prints and maps of 19th Century Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Highly recommended entertainment!

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A classic Victorian travelogue from the Indian Raj, by a real-life Great White Hunter

"One great peculiarity in Newera Ellia is the comparative freedom from poisonous vermin. There are three varieties of snakes, only one of which is hurtful, and all are very minute. The venomous species is the "carrawellé," whose bite is generally fatal; but this snake is not often met with. There are no ticks, nor bugs, nor leeches, nor scorpions, nor white ants, nor wasps, nor mosquitoes; in fact, there is nothing venomous except the snake alluded to, and a small species of centipede. Fleas there are certainly - indeed, a fair sprinkling of fleas; but they are not troublesome, except in houses which are unoccupied during a portion of the year. This is a great peculiarity of a Ceylon flea - he is a great colonist; and should a house be untenanted for a few months, so sure will it swarm with these "settlers." Even a grass hut built for a night's bivouac in the jungle, without a flea in the neighborhood, will literally swarm with them if deserted for a couple of months. Fleas have a great fancy for settling upon anything white; thus a person with white trowsers will be blackened with them, while a man in darker colors will be comparatively free. I at first supposed that they appeared in larger numbers on the white ground because they were more easily distinguished; but I tried the experiment of putting a sheet of writing-paper and a piece of brown talipot leaf in the midst of fleas; the paper was covered with them, while only two or three were on the talipot.

The bite of the small species of centipede alluded to is not very severe, being about equivalent to a wasp's sting. I have been bitten myself, and I have seen another person suffering from the bite, which was ludicrous enough.

The sufferer was Corporal Phinn, of H.M. Fifteenth Regiment. At that time he was one of Lieutenant de Montenach's servants, and accompanied his master on a hunting-trip to the Horton Plains.

Now Phinn was of course an Irishman; an excellent fellow, a dead hand at tramping a bog and killing a snipe, but (without the slightest intention of impugning his veracity) Phinn's ideality was largely developed. He was never by himself for five minutes in the jungle without having seen something wonderful before his return; this he was sure to relate in a rich brogue with great facetiousness.

However, we had just finished dinner one night, and Phinn had then taken his master's vacant place (there being only one room) to commence his own meal, when up he jumped like a madman, spluttering the food out of his mouth, and shouting and skipping about the room with both hands clutched tightly to the hinder part of his inexpressibles. "Oh, by Jasus! help, sir, help! I've a reptile or some divil up my breeches! Oh! bad luck to him, he's biting me! Oh! oh! it's sure a sarpint that's stinging me! quick, sir, or he'll be the death o' me!"

Phinn was frantic, and upon lowering his inexpressibles we found the centipede about four inches long which had bitten him. A little brandy rubbed on the part soon relieved the pain."

Among the Tibetans, by Isabella L. Bird

Formats: Acrobat Reader (PDF); Microsoft Reader (LIT)

Isabella Lucy Bird's 1886 account of her journey by horse (and yak!) into the Himalayan kingdoms of Ladakh and Tibet. 
The original text, enhanced in ebook format, with biographical notes, illustrated with period photos and maps of Ladakh and Tibet. A fascinating cross-cultural voyage of exploration. PDF version features mock parchment paper effect.  

"After a bitterly cold night I was awakened at dawn by novel sounds, gruntings, and low, resonant bellowing round my tent, and the grey light revealed several yaks (the Bos grunniens, the Tibetan ox), the pride of the Tibetan highlands. This magnificent animal, though not exceeding an English shorthorn cow in height, looks gigantic, with his thick curved horns, his wild eyes glaring from under a mass of curls, his long thick hair hanging to his fetlocks, and his huge bushy tail. He is usually black or tawny, but the tail is often white, and is the length of his long hair. The nose is fine and has a look of breeding as well as power. He only flourishes at altitudes exceeding 12,000 feet. Even after generations of semi-domestication he is very wild, and can only be managed by being led with a rope attached to a ring in the nostrils. He disdains the plough, but condescends to carry burdens, and numbers of the Ladak and Nubra people get their living by carrying goods for the traders on his broad back over the great passes. His legs are very short, and he has a sensible way of measuring distance with his eyes and planting his feet, which enables him to carry loads where it might be supposed that only a goat could climb. He picks up a living anyhow, in that respect resembling the camel.

He has an uncertain temper, and is not favourably disposed towards his rider. Indeed, my experience was that just as one was about to mount him he usually made a lunge at one with his horns. Some of my yak steeds shied, plunged, kicked, executed fantastic movements on the ledges of precipices, knocked down their leaders, bellowed defiance, and rushed madly down mountain sides, leaping from boulder to boulder, till they landed me among their fellows. The rush of a herd of bellowing yaks at a wild gallop, waving their huge tails, is a grand sight.

My first yak was fairly quiet, and looked a noble steed, with my Mexican saddle and gay blanket among rather than upon his thick black locks. His back seemed as broad as that of an elephant, and with his slow, sure, resolute step, he was like a mountain in motion. We took five hours for the ascent of the Digar Pass, our loads and some of us on yaks, some walking, and those who suffered most from the ‘pass-poison’ and could not sit on yaks were carried. A number of Tibetans went up with us. It was a new thing for a European lady to travel in Nubra, and they took a friendly interest in my getting through all right. The dreary stretches of the ascent, though at first white with edelweiss, of which the people make their tinder, are surmounted for the most part by steep, short zigzags of broken stone. The heavens were dark with snow-showers, the wind was high and the cold severe, and gasping horses, and men prostrate on their faces unable to move, suggested a considerable amount of suffering; but all safely reached the summit, 17,930 feet, where in a snowstorm the guides huzzaed, praised their gods, and tucked rag streamers into a cairn."

From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan 

by Madame Helena Pretrovna Blavatsky. Atmospheric account of a mystical voyage through India, visiting sacred citied, temples and caves, by the notorious occultist, spiritualist and Theosophy pioneer, Madame HP Blavatsky, from 1892

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"India is the land of legends and of mysterious nooks and corners. There is not a ruin, not a monument, not a thicket, that has no story attached to it. Yet, however they may be entangled in the cobweb of popular imagination, which becomes thicker with every generation, it is difficult to point out a single one that is not founded on fact. With patience and, still more, with the help of the learned Brahmans you can always get at the truth, when once you have secured their trust and friendship.

The same road leads to the temple of the Parsee fire-worshippers. At its altar burns an unquenchable fire, which daily consumes hundredweights of sandal wood and aromatic herbs. Lit three hundred years ago, the sacred fire has never been extinguished, notwithstanding many disorders, sectarian discords, and even wars. The Parsees are very proud of this temple of Zaratushta, as they call Zoroaster. Compared with it the Hindu pagodas look like brightly painted Easter eggs. Generally they are consecrated to Hanuman, the monkey-god and the faithful ally of Rama, or to the elephant headed Ganesha, the god of the occult wisdom, or to one of the Devis. You meet with these temples in every street. Before each there is a row of pipals (Ficus religiosa) centuries old, which no temple can dispense with, because these trees are the abode of the elementals and the sinful souls. 

All this is entangled, mixed, and scattered, appearing to one's eyes like a picture in a dream. Thirty centuries have left their traces here."