KARL MAUCH - AFRICAN EXPLORER (1971)

Publisher's leatherette binding with gilt titles on spine. Illustrated dust jacket.

Limited edition of 1500 numbered copies. This is number 162.

247pp. Illustrated. Edited and translated by F. O. Bernhard.

Binding sound. Former owner's bookplate on front paste down. Light foxing to endpapers. Dust jacket in good condition.

'One hundred years ago, on the 5th of September 1871, Karl Mauch saw the Zimbabwe Ruins for the first time and made their existence known to the world at large. It is a debatable question whether he, in fact, was the discoverer of these ruins, whose whereabouts were vaguely known from reports by various black hunters. Adam Render had lived nearby for some years previous to Mauch's arrival and must have been aware of them. Mauch had travelled widely in Central Africa from 1865 to that 5th day of September, 1871, mapping large parts of the territories he explored and discovering various goldfields in what is now Rhodesia. The well-known geographer, Dr. A. Petermann in Gotha, Germany, contributed largely to Mauch's fame in publishing in his 'Geographischen Mittheilungen' letters and reports by the explorer. These are contained in this book which may be taken as a companion-volume of Mauch's manuscript Journals Nos. 3 and 4 which were published by the National Archives of Rhodesia in 1969. The earlier news of Mauch and, especially, the Ergaenzungsheft No. 37, deals mostly with the old Transvaal Republic as seen through Mauch's eyes. The later accounts are of interest when compared with his journals, showing plainly, on the one hand, what Mauch was made out to be by his German sponsors; on the other hand, his journals afford an unbiased appreciation of his difficult character and explain all to clearly why the journals were never published in Germany.' - editor's note