AUSTRAL AFRICA, LOSING IT OR RULING IT

Being Incidents and Experiences in Bechuanaland, Cape Colony, and England.

2 volumes: 515 + 525 pages, frontispiece portrait in each volume, 30 plates, 2 folding colour maps, original brown cloth title gilt and with a map of Southern Africa stamped in black on the upper covers. There is foxing on the title pages caused by the tissue guards and some scattered foxing elsewhere in the text, spotting on the uncut page edges, book plate on each front paste-down endpapers, whilst the spines are slightly faded the cloth is in very good condition and the bindings firm and tight.

Mendelssohn (Sydney) South African Bibliography, volume 1, page 850, ‘This work affords the best detailed historical account of the events which led to the inclusion of Bechuanaland amongst the colonies of South Africa – the first step towards the retention of the hinterland of the Cape for the Empire….. The work is of voluminous nature, and it divided into six books which discuss native life in Bechuanaland, the European expansion, the proceedings of the Dutch freebooters, and the foundation and suppression of their republic, the Imperial and Colonial policies with regard to the country, Sir Charles Warren’s expedition, and many other local and colonial matters. The volumes contain a large number of illustrations, a map, and a copious index.