COMDT.HOLDEN BOWKER.An 1820 Settler book including unpublished records of the Frontier Wars.

"It being too late to go ashore that evening, we continued gazing on this scene till long after sunset, till twilight had darkened into night,and the constellations of the southern hemisphere, revolving in cloudless brilliancy above, reminded us that nearly half the globe's expanse intervened between us and our native land - and that here, in this farthest nook of Southern Africa, we were now about to receive the portion of our inheritance, and to draw an irrevocable lot for ourselves and for our children's children ..."

Thus Thomas Pringle describes the arrival of the Weymouth in Algoa Bay on 15th May, 1820. Also on board the Weymouth that day was Settler Miles Bowker with his wife and family of eight sons and two daughters. He had left behind him a prosperous existence as a farmer in England, so that his sons could reap the benefit of the numerous opportunities offered by a new country. They did not disappoint him. Unlike most Settlers, many of whom were townsfolk and for the most part ill-equipped to survive in so primitive and foreign an environment, the Bowkers soon settled down. With tenacity of purpose they surmounted the difficulties and hardships that ruined many of the early settlers.

Holder Bowker was without any doubt the most outstanding member of this remarkable family. Enterprising, adverturous and entirely fearless, he well deserved the admiration of his contemporaries and the trust they put in him in times of crisis. The story of his life - an extraordinarily interesting one - is here recounted with the aid of several rare old Africana documents, two of which have never before been published. These first-hand accounts of troubled times on the frontier are bound to hold every reader spellbound, no matter what his interest may be.

Hardcover with unclipped dustcover. A corner loss to front cover.Ex Libris label to front paste-down/Preface with 174 pages text plus map and illustrations. Very clean copy.