Travels in West Africa

Posted on 15 November 2017 by Mary Henrietta Kingsley

In 1893, defying every convention of Victorian womanhood, Mary Kingsley set off alone for West Africa to collect botanical specimens Unaccompanied except for native guides, she plunged boldly into forbidding jungles, often the first European and almost always the first white woman ever to arrive Undaunted by tales of ferocious cannibals, she made friends with the tribes she met and collected priceless samples of flora and fauna Along the way she fought off crocodiles with a paddle and hit a leopard over the head with a pot When she fell into a trap lined with sharp sticks, she was saved by her voluminous crinolines for she always dressed like a lady Travels in West Africa is a book as vivid and unforgettable as the extraordinary woman herself The charm of West Africa is a painful one it gives you pleasure when you are out there, but when you are back here it gives you pain by calling you Come back, come back, this is your home Mary KingsleyNational Geographic Adventure Classics is a series that celebrates the 100 greatest adventure books of all time, as compiled by a panel of experts for National Geographic Adventure These titles have been carefully selected for their adrenaline quotient and their status as classics of the adventure genre. Free Read Travels in West Africa [ by ] Mary Henrietta Kingsley [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr Just came across a lovely bit, as Kingsley laments people s over reliance on water filters to protect them from the many diseases rampant in Africa A good filter is a very fine thing for clearing drinking water of hippopotami, crocodiles, water snakes, catfish, etc., and I dare say it will stop back sixty per cent of the live or dead African natives that may be in it but if you think it is going to stop back the microbe of marsh fever my good sir, you are mistaken Roughly contemporary with Just came across a lovely bit, as Kingsley laments people s over reliance on water filters to protect them from the many diseases rampant in Africa A good filter is a very fine thing for clearing drinking water of hippopotami, crocodiles, water snakes, catfish, etc., and I dare say it will stop back sixty per cent of the live or dead African natives that may be in it but if you think it is going to stop back the microbe of marsh fever my good sir, you are mistaken Roughly contemporary with that other great woman explorer, Isabella Bird, Mary Kingsley is a very different kind of explorer She was not a missionary or humanitarian her travels in Africa we...I wanted to like this book and at a different point in my life I would probably have enjoyed it I actually did enjoy what I read about 60 pages, but I simply did not want to read any Mary Kingsley is a fascinating person but her comments are very late ...From my .com review A most remarkable womanIf you enjoyed Katherine Hepburn s spunky performance in The African Queen or delight when Elizabeth Peters fictional Amelia Peabody prods a villain with her trusty umbrella, you will undoubtedly enjoy the real adventures of Mary Kingsley in Africa At thirty years of age, her parents having both died, the sheltered Miss Kingsley set off for the continent that had for so long ruled her imagination Setting herself up as a trader in West AfricFrom my .com review A most remarkable womanIf you enjoyed Katherine Hepburn s spunky performance in The African Queen or delight when Elizabeth Peters fictional Amelia Peabody prods a villain with her trusty umbrella, you will undoubtedly enjoy the real adventures of Mary Kingsley in Africa At thirty years of age, her parents having both died, the sheltered Miss Kingsley set off for the continent that had for so long ruled her imagination Setting herself up as a trader in West Africa, she set out across treacherous swamps and uncharted regions, going where few white men let alone women had ever been.Kingsley wrote of her travels with a self deprecating wit, impaling many of the rac...A remarkably fearless explorer and scientist, Mary Kingsley traveled to areas where the mortality rate among Europeans was extremely high, to cannibal villages, and to rivers full of crocodiles One of her amazing feats was to climb Mount Cameroon 13,255 by a new route through constant rain When her native guides gave out, she made the final ascent by herself in heavy, cumbersome Victorian dress Her writing style is a bit uneven At her best she can be enormously witty and entertaining, as A remarkably fearless explorer and scientist, Mary Kingsley traveled to areas where the mortality rate among Europeans was extremely high, to cannibal villages, and to rivers full of crocodiles One of her amazing feats was to climb Mount Cameroon 13,255 by a new route through constant rain When her native guides gave out, she made the final ascent by herself in heavy, cumb...What Mary Kingsley did was pretty incredible in 1893, she decided skirts and all to travel to West Africa to explore, collect fish and learnabout the religion of native people Her account Travels in West Africa follows her adventures as she traipses through the jungle, paddles down rivers in canoes, and hikes up a mountain in the Cameroons in a storm Her spirit of adventure and pluck is incredibly admirable and pulls together a wide ranging story, as she travels across the cou What Mary Kingsley did was pretty incredible in 1893, she decided skirts and all to travel to West Africa to explore, collect fish and learnabout the religion of native people Her account Travels in West Africa follows her adventures as she traipses ...This is one of my all time favorite books It was written in the 1890s, so it takes a few pages to get into the period English, but I was fascinated right away This is a hilarious, well written, thought provoking autobiography filled with adventure and touching accounts of humanity at it s finest.Aventuras reales de una mujer victoriana de las que se van a frica con su t y su quitasol y se meten por los m s peligrosos r os, selvas y monta as, y nos deja vividas descripciones de sus experiencias Interesante para conocer el frica colonial desde el punto de vista de una inglesa, un tanto exc ntrica, como ella misma dice y muy poco convencional, que se sinti liberada cuando pudo escapar de sus parientes y de Inglaterra y campar a sus anchas por tierras salvajes, rodeada de porteadores n Aventuras reales de una mujer victoriana de las que se van a frica con su t y su quitasol y se meten por los m s peligrosos r os, selvas y monta as, y nos deja vividas descripciones de sus experiencias Interesante para conocer el frica colonial desde el punto de vista de una inglesa, un tanto exc ntrica, co...Kingsley is possibly unique in her perspective as a single white woman traveling alone in Africa in the late 19th century While her views on race and culture arenarrow than ours, I think she conveys con...Mary Kingsley is a 30 something late Victorian woman who inherits money on her parent s death and decides to head off to West Africa There, never changing out of her petticoats, but without an English escort, she tells a witty tale of her adventures.An unlikely adventurer, Mary Kingsley took off for research exploration in West Africa Her love for good sailing vessels quickly draws the reader into a comfortable cojourner role and, now settled into that role, into the joys of her exquisite descriptions of both the horrid and beautiful views along the rivers and paths travelled Her courage and strength of character lead to places most would fear, most notably the chief homes of notorious cannibal Fan tribes and to Mount Cameroon s summit H An unlikely adventurer, Mary Kingsley took off for research exploration in West Africa Her love for good sailing vessels quickly draws the reader into a comfortable cojourner role and, now settled into that role, into the joys of her exquisite descriptions of both the horrid and beautifu...

English
15 November 2017

Mary Henrietta Kingsley