Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country in South Africa (1836) - inscribed by author

Modern morocco binding with marbled boards.

Inscribed by the author on the front endpaper.

iv + 412 pages (errata slip at back), hand coloured lithographed frontispiece, 25 lithographic plates (1 hand coloured), 2 folding maps coloured in outline.

Internally clean with foxing mainly on plates.

Captain Allen Francis Gardiner (1794-1851) was a British Royal Navy Officer and missionary. This book details his first journey as a missionary establishing the first mission station at Port Natal (today Durban). He befriended the Zulu king 'Dingarn' and successfully negotiated a treaty for an immense grant of land around Port Natal for the settlers. This document still exists - bearing King Dingaan's 'signature'. The Zulu King is known to have signed another document a few years later, also for a land grant, which he rather infamously terminated soon after.

'Captain Gardiner (Royal Navy) seems to have been animated by a great desire to spread the benefits of Christianity and civilisation among the natives, but owing probably to the passive hostility of the Zulu Indunas, very little appears to have been accomplished at this period. On his first visit to the country Dingan refused to allow the writer to teach or preach, although he treated him well during his stay. On returning to Port Natal the residents of that settlement requested Mr. Gardiner to form a missionary establishment in Natal. This request being acceded to the station was started on the "Berea," now a popular suburb of Durban. After the mission was established the author left again to interview Dingan, in order to endeavour to carry out a treaty between the king and the residents of Port Natal, with reference to the tenure of their land and the vexed question of refugees from Zululand. The treaty was successfully negotiated, and an immense grant of land made to Captain Gardiner, which included all the original grants held by the settlers. He also received authority to preach in the district or province of Clomanthleen, but he does not seem to have remained there long. In the main, he seems to have made a good impression upon the king and his counsellors, which was probably heightened by the well-selected presents which he made to the potentate and his officials. On the promulgation of the treaty several arrests of deserters were made in Natal, and these prisoners were brought back by the author to Zululand and were punished by death.

There is an interesting description of the country, and it would appear that the military system and the deep-rooted belief in witchcraft prevailing among the inhabitants were great stumbling blocks to the conversion of the natives to religion or civilisation, and no great results were achieved by the missionaries, a fact corroborated by many other authors. Dingan held Captain Gardiner personally responsible for the due maintenance of the treaty, and in consequence of this he left the country to see the Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir B. D'Urban, and to persuade that gentleman to appoint an officer to enforce the treaty and regulate the affairs of the settlement. After a long journey, in the course of which he visited Grahamstown and King William's Town, he finally met the Governor at Port Elizabeth, and a letter and presents were sent to Dingan and the treaty confirmed. The volume contains some coloured portraits of Dingan, many illustrations, two maps, the regulations of the town of Durban, and the treaty with the King of Zululand.' - Mendelssohn Vol.I, pages 587-588