Central Africa. Route of Lieut. Cameron with continuation from the maps of Dr. Livingstone and other travellers. Lieut. Cameron was the first European to traverse Africa East to West.

Verney Cameron was given command of an expedition organised by the Royal Geographical Society to find David Livingstone. His mission was unsuccessful as Livingstone had died. Undeterred, Cameron was determined to explore the upper reaches of the Congo River and reach the west coast of Africa. His journey was full of hardship, particularly as Cameron was delirious with fever most of the time but he finally reached the shore just north of Benguela in 1875.

This map shows the western half of his route marked in a dotted line labelled as "probable direction to the west coast" as Cameron was in no state to take detailed geographical readings.

Having survived his ordeal, Cameron became a celebrity author, editor and expert on exploration.

In later life, he also became a notable author of Victorian fantastic fiction.
Original colour. [AFR6311]