Although my research has focused on identifying those who read Macintosh’s Travels, I had not really considered the possibility that there might exist an altogether different category of reader: the imaginary, or fictional. One such reader is the protagonist of the 1877 Spanish novel, El Guante Gris: a poor 28-year-old Flemish man, Flavio Albieh.

The novel sees Flavio reunite with an old school friend, Alberto Layland, in Ghent, where the pair commiserate over the recent deaths of their fathers. Alberto invites Flavio to spend the night in his palatial home, and Flavio is shown to a well-appointed room with a bookcase full of expensively bound travel narratives, including those by Edward Parry, John Franklin, and William Penny. Flavio’s attention is, however, taken by “los viajes de M. Makintosh en Asia, Africa y América,” and he spends a long time immersed in its pages—a distraction, of sorts, from Alberto’s strongly voiced prohibition on Flavio falling in love with Alberto’s beautiful younger sister, Ketrere, whom Flavio has just met.

Alberto, for his own part, is also lovestruck, following a chance meeting with an equally beautiful mixed-race woman from Whydah in West Africa, Velia Aral-noor. To Alberto’s great disappointment, Velia is required to return to Whydah almost immediately after their meeting, leaving only a grey glove as a token, but the lovestruck Alberto immediately commits to scouring the globe to find Velia again.

Flavio, meanwhile, having read Macintosh’s “libro precioso,” is inspired to join Alberto on his quest, partly to imitate the “denodado explorador del Africa central,” and partly to distance himself from Ketrere, with whom he has already fallen hopelessly in love.

It goes without saying that the author of El Guante Gris, Aureliano Colmenares, likely cited Macintosh’s Travels based on its title alone, rather than its content, which deals hardly at all with parts of Africa that interest Flavio and Alberto. Are there other fictional readers of Travels? Only time, and yet more digging, will tell.