My Command in South Africa 1874 - 1878

376pp + 39pp advertisements at rear. Three maps. Contents clean. Ex-library copy rebound in cloth and marbled boards.

Quite an uncommon title as the first edition comprised of just 1000 copies. Mendelssohn only had the second edition of 1880 at his disposal.

(From Mendelssohn, Vol.I, page 400:) 'There are some interesting details respecting the condition of affairs at the Diamond Fields, the author having visited the River diggings, as well as the group of mines around Kimberley. There are notes on Lobengula and the Mashonas, mostly taken from a letter which appeared about this time in the Diamond News (Kimberley), in which it was stated that the King "is doing his best by every artifice that he can devise to keep the white man out of his country," and told all applicants that there was no gold there, finally saying to a would-be prospector, "I will not allow you (the English) to go into the country, or if I did I might as well give it to you."

Allusion is made to the dismissal of Mr. Molteno and his ministry by Sir Bartle Frere, and it is said of the former that "he showed such contempt for the authority of the Governor, and enunciated such extraordinary views of constitutional government, that the High Commissioner was obliged to request his Government to resign. It is stated that the Cape Premier evidently considered that the Governor and the Queen were ciphers whose only duty was to give a formal assent to the doings of himself and his war minister, Mr. Merriman." With regard to the latter, it is observed that "he was a man of talent and energy, but his thirst for power almost amounted to a mania...he was totally incompetent to conduct the Colonial War Department. His ignorance of military matters was only surpassed by the obstinacy of his determination not to learn the principles of war."