MATABELE LAND AND THE VICTORIA FALLS

A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Interior of Southern Africa, from the letters & journals of the late Frank Oates, F.R.G.S.

First Edition xliii, 383 pages, 32 pages of the publisher's catalogue, frontispiece portrait of Frank Oates, 6 chromolithographic plates, 10 coloured plates, with bevelled boards, with gilt zebras on upper cover – there is a crease in the cloth in the right hand corner of the front cover, decorative gilt on the spine, and a gilt bustard on the back cover, corners lightly bumped, starting to wear at the hinges, uncut edges, several pages have been carelessly opened - page 206 has been simply repaired, book binders ticket on the back paste down end paper – Burn & Co., a very good copy.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography volume 2 page 112: Frank Oates was born near Leeds on April 6, 1840, and was educated at Oxford. After a tour in the Rocky Mountains he formed a plan for an expedition to visit the Zambesi Falls via Natal, and accompanied by his brother, Mr. W. E. Oates, sailed for South Africa in March 1873. The brothers fitted out their expedition at Maritzburg, and travelled through the Transvaal and Bechuanaland, visiting the Tati district, soon after which Mr. W. E. Oates returned to England. Frank Oates proceeded to Bulawayo, and he gives an interesting account of Matabeleland at this period. He was well received by Lobengula, who gave him considerable assistance, but owing to many delays he made several unsuccessful attempts to reach the falls, and did not arrive there until the last day of the year 1874 ; soon after which he was attacked by fever, and died on the return journey to Tati early in February 1875.

His account of Matabeleland is one of the best of the earlier modern works on the country, and the volume possesses a number of coloured and chromo plates, a portrait of Mr. Oates, and several maps and other illustrations. The appendices contain an article on South African Ethnology by Dr. George Rolleston, and catalogues and descriptions of the ornithological, botanical, and entomological collections formed by Mr. Oates.

One of the chromolithographic plates is a particularly fine view of the Victoria Falls (Western extremity).