Cape Good Hope

Two volume set.

DJ spine band of each volume is darkened, a 2cm closed tear from top edge near front foldover hinge to vol one; small nick and frittering of top edge of foldover leaf of vol two; both now in loose protective plastic overwrap.

Olive green buckram covered boards with gilt Balkema colophon to front board and gilt titling to spine.

Light offset eps and further offset to title page from tipped in colour frontispiece of each volume. Volume two has four worm holes in the rear internal spine hinge but no further penetration.

VOLUME ONE: pages xv + 222; chapters 'The Foundations 1652-1662' and 'Too Many Cooks 1663-1680'.

VOLUME TWO: pages xi + 223 - 256 (continuous pagination from Vol one) and including the two volume index.

Paperblock edges a little dusty/tanned.

During the first fifty years of Dutch colonisation at the Cape of Good Hope many travellers arrived in Table Bay, on their way to the East:some came voluntarily, others by force of circumstance.

They came ashore, looked around, observed strange,indigenous people, interesting plants and animals, they visited the little settlement, met the local personalities, wondered at the way-of-life. They also consulted and negotiated with the Dutch officials, and sought help in their difficulties. And, most frequently, they recorded their impressions so as to inform and astonish their friends in Europe with the wonders they had seen.

These impressions were sometimes published; but more often they appeared in ships' log books and other manuscripts, unpublished, and available to the researchers of today only in archives and special liabraries.

Such recorded impressions are the subject matter of this book : Major Raven-Hart has selected, transcribed and meticulously translated a total of 104 accounts by visitors to the Cape between 1652 and 1702. They are taken from the original Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, Danish and German; with one exception, the list is exhaustive for this period.

The language styles are varied; quaint and vivid, penetrating, and sometimes quite coarse.

To accompany the transcribed texts, and to help the reader enjoy and understand, Major Raven-Hart has provided background and context notes to describe contemporary happenings in Europe, official records by the Cape commanders' and governors' and biographical notes on the writers'.

There is also a unique index with over 2,200 entries: in this the reader will find references to animals, plants, persons, names, etc; a glossary of foreign words, definitions of various sea-faring and navigational terms and expressions; identifications of flora and fauna, bibliographies; and explanatory notes.

This index is not just a valuable and practical working tool, it is virtually a concentrated commpanion-book or vade mecum for late 17th Century history of the Cape.

A feature of this book are the illustrations: the author has been able to find 65 engravings, maps, title pages, portraits-most of which have been reproduced as full-or double-pages.