The Gates of Africa: Death, Discovery, and the Search for Timbuktu

This chatty account of the British African Association and its 'geographic missionaries' is best read as a tale of disappointments. This is as a steady stream of daring and competent men were sent forth seeking to fill in the blank spaces on the map of Africa, with fabled Timbuktu as their ultimate goal, only to always fall short. The ultimate irony being that Timbuktu was long past its prime before the Association sent forth its first explorer; the negative evidence of the once-great town's lack of influence seemingly lost on association member and explorer alike. For all that travail though knowledge was collected and the Association can be said to be an inspiration to the Royal Geographic Society, which ultimately supplanted it.