No Picnic on Mt. Kenya (Adventure Library)

This very interesting 229 page book from The Adventure Library tells the story of the first Europeans to begin exploring the interior of East Africa in the late nineteenth century. "The first European to see the glittering mountain, called 'Kere-Nyaga' - 'Mountain of Brightness' - by the Kikuyu who lived near it, was missionary Dr. Johan Ludwig Krapf on December 3, 1849." They were slow to start but once started they moved with remorseless speed to study and climb Mount Kenya and to gain control of this area of Africa so soon there was a Portuguese East Africa, a German East Africa, a British East Africa, a French Somaliland and an Italian Somaliland. This jostling continued for the next half century until the beginning of World War II when Italy invaded Ethiopia. A man named Felice Benuzzi finds himself incarcerated as a POW in Kenya, thus begins the exciting tale of his escape from prison and his climb of Mount Kenya with two fellow prisoners. The endpapers and paste-down endpapers contain hand-drawn maps of Mt. Kenya showing the trios various camps along the way, the elevation, the vegetation, etc.