RELATION D'UN VOYAGE D'EXPLORATION AU NORD-EST DE LA COLONIE DU CAP DE BONNE-ESPÉRANCE (1842)

A first edition of this top-tier africana title.

Rebound in circa mid-20th century budget binding with leather spine and cloth sides. This binding is nevertheless also a piece of africana as it was the one paid for by government ethnologist and author N. J. van Warmelo for his personal library. Van Warmelo's signature is on the front endpaper as well as on the title page. As Dr. van Warmelo was a great collector of material on South Africa's ethnic tribes it is not surprising that this title would have found its way into his collection. As he was an academic I have to assume that the content was more important to him than the monetary value and therefore the modest binding.

There is an old pencil inscription on the front paste down indicating that a copy of this title was sold at a Johannesburg auction in 1941 for 26/-, and that the Edwards catalogue for 1942 had one listed at £2-10-0. This is either the handwriting of Van Warmelo or, more likely, that of well-known antiquarian africana dealer Frank Thorold.

x + 620pp. with 11 plates and one map (all present). Contents generally clean with occasional foxing. Two of the folds on the rear of the map have been reinforced with paper vertically. This was done with acid free paper as there is still no noticeable burn or bleed-through on the face of the map. The plate titled "Guerrier Mossouto" has been reinforced with paper at the back along a tear at the front edge. Images added.

This is the original French edition. The first English translation appeared four years later and was published in Cape Town.

'An account of a tour taken by two French Protestant missionaries who were settled in Basutoland, to that part of South Africa between the Orange and the Vaal Rivers, which was mainly inhabited by the Bechuanas. The tour lasted about three months, and much of the information published was related for the first time, including notes on the Bushmen, Corannas, Basutos, Bechuanas, Griquas, Zulus, and other nations, with chapters on botanical and geological matters, hunting and even literature. There is a full account of the Zulu army, including the names of the regiments, together with those of the Commanders, Lieutenants, and sub-Lieutenants, and there are interesting accounts of Chaka and Dingan, with a description of the death of the former, and an ode to the later. There is a short history of the Bechuana tribes, and it is mentioned that circumcision is practised among them on children of both sexes, and that cannibalism was prevalent, mainly, however, among the "Marimos." The Boers are severely condemned for their immoral and cruel habits, which, it is stated, "excited a very strong feeling against us among the natives." They are charged with stealing the children of the Bushmen, who were forced to live in bushes and caverns to escape their rapacity, "but even here the Dutch Boers discover them, . . . fire on the kraals, kidnap the children, and when they can, carry off even adults." - Mendelssohn Vol.I, page 49-50