Hints to Travellers

An edition of a handbook produced by the Royal Geographical Society of London, one of the primary sponsors of geographical and scientific expeditions during the 19th and for much of the 20th century. The great Amazonian explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett (recently the subject of a book and film, the Lost City of Z) carried a well-thumbed copy of the book with him on his RGS-sponsored expeditions, the last of which he never returned from. The book, which was published in two volumes, contains a range of advice on how to survive in difficult terrain and deal with hostile natives, cope with malaria, yellow fever, serious injury and other hazards, plus copious information of a scientific nature. It offers a fascinating insight into the astonishing resilience of explorers of the Victorian and Edwardian age, their motives and attitudes of mind.