The publication of "The Chad Basin and Bagirmi" completes the English translation in four volumes of Gustav Nachtigal's encyclopaedic "Sahara and Sudan". This volume, in addition to continuing the scrupulous examination of Bornu, recounts Nachtigal's journey south-eastward from Lake Chad, towards Bagirmi. He penetrated further in that direction than any European before him, paid an extended visit to the court (then in exile) of Bagirmi, and accompanied the Bagirmi king on a succession of slave-raids. His sustained achievement, carried through as unassumingly as it is recorded in these pages, was both heroic and thoroughly honourable.

Author Biography

Gustav Nachtigal is a major source for many aspects of African studies in the area today covered by Libya, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Sudan. Allan G. Fisher and Humphrey J. Fisher who have prepared this translation were both born in New Zealand. Allan Fisher studied at Melbourne and later taught at the Universities of Otago and Western Australia. He came to England as Price Professor of International Economics at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London in 1937. Later, he joined the International Monetary Fund, becoming Chief Editor. His son, Humphrey Fisher, studied at Harvard and Oxford and completed the task of finishing the translation after his father's death.