Through Timbuctu and Across the Great Sahara

Captain A. H. W. Haywood's Through Timbuctu and Across the Great Sahara is a vivid first-hand adventure through West Africa, tracing an audacious route from Sierra Leone to the source of the Niger, downriver to its great bend, and onward across the Sahara to Algiers. Written from the perspective of an experienced traveler on six months' leave from colonial service, it blends hunting, exploration, and practical fieldcraft with sharp observations of landscapes, peoples, and frontier life. From the railway at Freetown and the rough bush country beyond, to the Moa River, the Anglo-Liberian border, and the shifting world of Mendiland, the journey reveals the hardships of tropical travel, the importance of carriers, language, and supplies, and the customs, beliefs, and secret societies that shape local life. As the expedition reaches the Niger basin, the narrative widens to river transport, colonial stations, bustling markets, desert caravans, and the striking diversity of the Western Soudan. Haywood hunts ducks, follows wind and water conditions, and travels with officials, soldiers, and journalists before pushing toward Timbuctu, Insalah, and finally Algiers. Rich in practical detail, danger, and atmosphere, the book presents the Sahara not as emptiness, but as a living world of trade, survival, and human endurance. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.