The Barsac Mission (French: L'Étonnante Aventure de la Mission Barsac ) is a novel attributed to Jules Verne and written (with inspiration from two unfinished Verne manuscripts) by his son Michel Verne. First serialized in 1914, it was published in book form in 1919. An English adaptation by I.O. Evans was published in 1960 in two volumes, Into the Niger Bend and The City in the Sahara . It revolves around a hidden city, called in English "Blackland," in the Sahara Desert. This edition includes the original introduction by translator I.O. Evans, a new introduction by literary scholar Darrell Schweitzer, and a new frontispiece portrait of Jules Verne by John Betancourt.