AFRICAN HUNTING FROM NATAL TO THE ZAMBESI

First Edition: x, 451, 32 pages publisher's catalogue at the back, folding map, engraved frontispiece portrait of the author, 6 tinted lithographic plates by Wolf, 40 wood engraved plates and text illustrations, half green leather with matching cloth sides, edges uncut, contents crisp, a very good copy.

Dictionary of South African Biography, Volume 111, pages 42/3: 'Baldwin arrived in Durban in 1851 having been attracted to South African by Cumming’s 'Five Years of a Hunter’s Life' published in 1850. He made several hunting expeditions to Zululand, Marico, Matabeleland and Lake Ngami. In April 1860 he again left for Potchefstroom intent on reaching the Victoria Falls, which he succeeded in doing more by luck than good management on August 3rd. He was the second white man to see the falls, the first to have reached them from the east coast (Natal), and the first to describe them with exactness and give their true dimensions, the accuracy of which he vouched for to David Livingstone himself, when the great explorer arrived about 8th or 9th August.'

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography, volume 1, pages 73/4, 'Mr. Baldwin penetrated through Natal, Zululand, the Transvaal, Bechuanaland, Matabeleland, and Namaqualand, in days when some of these countries were hardly known even by name, and he was the second European to reach the falls of the Zambesi River, now famous as the Victoria Falls. On his arrival in Natal, in 1851, he joined a well-known hunter, known as " Elephant White," and served his apprenticeship to the life of a hunter in his company. He visited Panda's Kraal, but does not appear ever to have met that " wily old savage," as he describes him. In 1854 he went on a hunting expedition to the Amatonga country, and he speaks of the natives as having been " very industrious, both men and women working in the gardens, a thing almost unheard of among Zulu men, who think it degrading." Next year found him again in Zululand, where he met Mr. Schreuder, the Norwegian missionary; Mr. Baldwin entertained the highest opinion of this gentleman, but did not believe he would be able to convert any Zulus, though he had great influence with them. He remarks on the ravages committed during the struggle between Panda's sons, Cetywayo and Umbulazi, with regard to the right of succession to the Zulu kingdom, and he was informed by Mr. Aftebro, a missionary residing in Zululand, that "the country was nearly depopulated . . . fully one-fourth of the whole Zulu nation must have been destroyed." About the middle of the year 1857 he went to the Transvaal, armed with an introduction to President Pretorius, to whom he took a present of books. It is interesting to note that about this time he was offered 3000 acres of land in a part of the country which must have been somewhere near what is now known as the Witwatersrand district, for plough. With regard to his reception by the Transvaal Dutchmen, he states “we were treated most hospitably and kindly by one and all the Boers. . . . They are a primitive, hospitable, good-hearted set . . . most of them are very comfortably off, and take things very easy." Having decided to visit Moselekatze's country, he arranged a trip with some Boers, but they were not successful in obtaining permission to hunt in the King's country. In 1858, after a visit to Bloemfontein, he started on an expedition to Lake N'gami, but on crossing the Vaal River into the Transvaal he found the Republics were at war with each other. The authorities ignored his permits, and arrested him on a charge of smuggling ammunition, but finally, after confiscating nearly all his powder and lead, they let him go. He visited Lechulatebe, Chief of the Lake N'gami country, and there is an interesting sketch, representing his entertainment at the kraal of this potentate. In August i860 he met Livingstone at the Zambesi Falls, and spent an evening with the great explorer, who gave him much information respecting his recent discoveries. During the last three years of Baldwin's wanderings, he journeyed over from 12,000 to 15,000 miles of country, and becoming at last somewhat weary of his vagrant life, he made up his mind that it was “nearly time to call a halt." Mr. Baldwin's experiences are written in a simple and unostentatious manner, but he went through more adventures than almost any other of the great South African travellers and hunters. He was fond of company at night round the camp fire but preferred shooting alone, and appears at times to have hunted in the same costume as Gordon Cumming, remarking, "When on foot, a blue and white shirt and a stout pair of gaiters, with the addition of a cap and shoes, are about all I burden my body with."'