Customer Reviews

The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia: And the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs

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You've got to like the sometimes tedious, journal-style approach of early explorers, or at least be willing to put up with it, to appreciate this book. However, it holds some remarkable writing, insight and yes adventure. Baker was a contemporary of Richard Burton, John Henning Speke, Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone, all famous for their searches for the source of the Nile River in Africa. If you know anything about this time in history and about Africa itself, then you know that Africa was almost always fatal. Few who went into the interior returned, and those who did usually paid with their health. Not a pretty picture. Into this scene walks Samuel Baker, a wealthy, larger than life British aristocrat with a passion for exploration and excitement.

Baker was a man who tackled rather than simply lived life. A fine linguist, writer, artist and sportsman who hunted with a knife because it was too easy to kill with a gun, he was also extremely practical with a "let's get on with it" attitude towards his travels. Nothing but determined, he presses forward when others would have said, "enough." Are you surprised that he succeeds where others have failed? I wasn't.

What I like about Baker's writing is that he knows how to tell a story. He is as interested in the people as he is in the facts of what happened. It also helps that Baker himself edited this book, picking and choosing the entries from his longer journal. If Baker is pompous and full of his own superiority at times, he can be forgiven. All in all this is a good read. It helps, however to have read his first book "The Albert N'yanza Great Basic of the Nile" first.

I like to read about exploring and hunting in Africa, authors like Ruark, Capstick, & Hemingway. The reason I hunted down this book is because Hemingway said it was the best book he ever read about Africa. I figured he would know.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Baker describes his explorations, hunting expeditions, and encounters with the natives in experiences that now can only be dreamed about. He talks about his extensive hunting trips with the Hamram Arabs, who hunted elephants with swords from horseback. He tells about traveling hundreds of miles on the backs of camels, and about rescuing one pack camel that had fallen off the side of a cliff by wrapping ropes around it and lowering it to the bottom of the canyon. Even much of the day to day camp life is very interesting, as the party had to provide for all of their needs for themselves.

It is worth noting, that apparently modern readers must be somewhat put off by a supposed tone of superiority. One reviewer indicates this way, and in the version I have, the publisher actually attempts a vague apology on the back of the book. I didn't notice anything in Sir Samuel Baker's tone, but if someone can read this book and not conclude from the narrative that Baker actually is superior to the vast majority of mortals, they must have a better imagination than I do.

One of the most interesting aspects of Baker's explorations is that he had his wife, Lady Florence, with him the entire time. One of my favorite stories is about a night when he was awakened by a gentle tug on his sleeve, which was always his wife's signal that something was wrong. Without rolling over he reached under his cot and got his rifle first, and then his wife indicated that a hyena had just stuck it's head in the door of the tent. He waited a few minutes, and when the hyena took another look, he dispatched it there in the tent in the middle of the night.

If you like to read about Africa, or about exploration, hunting, or high adventure, I think you will enjoy this book very much.

This book makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in 19th century Africa. Above all, it gives a clear insight into how Africa and, in particular, the Nile was viewed by European adventurers and hunters at the time. Samuel Baker was a very able writer and his fluid style and keen eye for scientific detail make this book a pleasure to read. Perhaps the only negative aspect of the book is that it goes into too much detail on Baker's hunting expeditions and the modern reader may find some of these episodes quite savage and cruel. Apart from that, it is a book which is well worth reading and which gives the reader a much better understanding of how life really was in these remote areas in the late 19th century.

There was a time when men of honor travelled the world in search of new and exciting adventures. Strength of character, intestinal fortitude and raw courage abound in this wonderful recount of actual events. It is hard to imagine in our "modern world" how difficult and dangerous the adventures retold in this amazing book must have been to actually achieve. This is not Hollywood or a video game. These events actually transpired as written by a man of unquestionable strength.

Although his writing style can be a bit dry at times the reader is transported to a world which no longer exists. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Africa, hunting, exploration, etc. There are few men of any generation whose accomplishments can be compared with those of Samuel White Baker.

For those who enjoy this book I highly recommend, Man-Eaters of India, by Jim Corbett. Another fine example of courage and honor under the most difficult of circumstances.