It is a key moment in the race among European powers for access to African territories and waterways along the equator: Henry Morton Stanley, a journalist and ruthless self-made man, is hastily paving a way for the Belgian king with rifle and dynamite along the Congo into the interior. Meanwhile, Pierre Savognan de Brazza, a Venetian nobleman and officer, passionate about adventure and the values of the French Republic, carefully explores the Ogowe River, which flows north of the Congo, between 1874 and 1882. Under the French flag, he frees slaves, establishes friendship treaties, and forms coalitions with local people. He promises prosperity and peace. Then he discovers a navigable tributary of the Congo and reaches its northern bank ahead of Stanley. His lectures and letters, newly translated into German, recount de Brazza's expeditions and his fruitless attempts.