Inspired by her own contact with Africa, Caroline Oliver has written biographies of five intrepid women who traveled through the interior of Africa during colonial times. Two were explorers. Alexine Tinne led her own expedition up the Bahr el Ghazal tributary of the Nile. The second sketch traces the expeditions of Florence Baker who accompanied her husband on two hazardous journeys to the lake regions of Central Africa. Oliver portrays Mary Kingsley,...