TO OPHIR DIRECT; OR, THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOLD FIELDS:

and an account of “Transvaal” or South African Republic: Its Ways and Means, and a Few Words on a Proposed NEW PORT, as the Shortest Road for the Diggers; by “Bamang-Wato.”

46 pages and 8 pages of commercial advertisements bound in at the end, large folding map as frontispiece (torn at the centre fold), contemporary pebble-grained cloth with gilt tilting along the spine, original printed paper wrappers bound in (these are chipped and frayed along the edges).

Mendelssohn (Sydney) South African Bibliography, volume 1, page 67. ‘An early tract dealing with the Transvaal and part of Rhodesia, with a curious account of the route, and of the inhabitants of the South African Republic at this period.’

A South African Bibliography, volume 1, page 297. Rhodesiana, Publication No.5 of the Rhodesiana Society, 1960, page 63, ‘…The author called himself “Bamang-Wato”, and the entry Mendelssohn does not identify him. However, he was Albert Brodrick, a landowner, hotelkeeper, and merchant of Pretoria. Brodrick was interested in mining for many years. In 1860 he was a director of the Transvaal General Mining Company, an early venture that failed for want of capital. He was a director of the South African Republic Mining Company formed in July, 1866, with a government monopoly to mine and smelt copper, lead, and other metals. Brodrick won a prize (he was second only to Karl Mauch) for his mineral collection at the first Transvaal Agricultural Show, held a Potchefstroom during, March 1867. We do not know whether Brodrick went to Tati or Matabeleland himself, but he was interested in the exploitation of Mauch’s gold discoveries there, as his pamphlet testifies.’