My reading of the moment is Travels in the Interior of Africa by Mungo Park, published in 1799. He was traveling in the Gambia and seems not to have been a great fan of the forest …
The country itself being an immense level, and very generally covered with wood, presents a tiresome and gloomy uniformity to the eye; but although Nature has denied the inhabitants the beauties of romantic landscapes she has bestowed on them, with a liberal hand, the more important blessings of fertility and abundance.
Perhaps now that travel is so much easier the landscapes have become more romantic.
bobmcgee 