In Dwarf Land and Cannibal Country (Harry Struben's Presentation Copy)

A Record of Travel and Discovery in Central Africa. 8vo, frontispiece portrait + xxiv + 385 + advertisements, illustrated with black & white photographs and plates, all three maps present. Red cloth covers with gilt decoration on front and titles on front and spine. First edition. A record of travel and discovery in Central Africa. Red cloth boards with gilt on front and spine, ex library copy with usual stamps but no cards, light foxing throughout, front and rear hinges cracked but intact, shaken. A piece of history comes with this title in the form of a Presentation Card which is glued to the inside front: "Presented by W.H. Struben, Esq." Harry Struben and his brother Fred discovered gold on the farm Wilgespruit at the western end of the Witwatersrand in 1884. The area is today called Roodepoort. They were the first to strike gold and are righfully regarded as South Africa's gold mining pioneers. In 1886 the Executive Council of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek announced in an official document that W.H. Struben is considered the real discoverer of the Witwatersrand gold fields. Harry later served as the first president of the Chamber of Mines.