REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY LIFE AND MISSIONARY LABOURS OF THE REV. JOHN EDWARDS, FIFTY YEARS A WESLEYAN MISSIONARY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Publisher's original blue pebble-grained cloth binding with gilt titles on front panel.

vii + 160pp.

Binding sound. Contents clean apart from former owner's names on title page. Lacks front endpaper.

This is the very scarce first edition published in Grahamstown in 1883. The second edition was published in London by T. Woolmer in 1886.

'An autobiography of a pioneer missionary in South Africa, in which the editor, to use his own words, has "let the writer speak for himself in his own plain, racy, pungent manner." Mr. Edwards was early drawn to a religious life, and was eventually selected for service in South Africa. He left England early in 1832, and after a rough voyage of about ninety days, arrived safely in Cape Town, leaving for Algoa Bay after a stay of a few weeks. The voyage to Port Elizabeth took nearly three weeks, and on his arrival he found waggons awaiting him to convey himself and his wife to the Buchnaap Station on the Vaal River, to which he had been appointed. On their way to their destination the travellers made a halt at Grahamstown, but the rest of the journey was very rough, and through an almost unknown country at that period, but which later on was one of the routes to the district afterwards known as Griqualand West. Soon after their arrival in this part of the country, the native chiefs of the Barolongs, Griquas, Corannas, and "Newlanders" resolved to try and settle on more suitable land, either in the Mantatee or Basuto country. The author, accompanied by Mr. Archbell, another well-known missionary, went with the expedition and explored the district. They eventually had a meeting with Sekonyela, chief of the Mantatees, and Moshesh, chief of the Basutos, and finally bought a large tract of land from them, which was afterwards annexed by the "Free State" Boers. About 12,000 natives removed to this new settlement, accompanied by the missionaries. Mr. Edwards' narrative is full of incident, and his experiences show him to have been a man of courage, energy, and resource. While staying at Thabanchu he met some of the emigrant Boers of the Great Trek, who under their leader Trigard (better known as Trichard), were proceeding to Delagoa Bay, where they ultimately nearly all perished of fever. He also made the acquaintance of Messrs. Casalis and Arbousset, the eminent French Protestant Missionaries, both of whom published valuable books on the country.

Mr. Edwards mentions "that the lions of the Mantatee country particularly, evinced a decided preference for human flesh," which he puts down to the fact that in the native battles in that part of Africa, the bodies were often left unburied; these were afterwards devoured by the lions, and thus a taste for human flesh grew on them.The author lost his wife in 1871, and soon left for a trip to England. On his return to Africa he retired as a supernumerary, after over half a century's service as a minister.' - Mendelssohn Vol.I, pages 513-514