SCENES AND ADVENTURES IN GREAT NAMAQUALAND

293 pages, frontispiece portrait, original decorated brown cloth over bevelled boards, titled and decorated in gilt and black on the upper cover and spine – the cloth is slightly rubbed along the edges, yellow endpapers intact, some foxing and browning of the pages around the margins, a good copy.

Dictionary of South African Biography, volume 3, page 716 ' A Weslyan missionary, Ridsdale arrived in Cape Town in 1843. He was appointed to take over the Nesbit Bath (Warmbad) circuit in the south of Namaqualand. The wanderings of the nomadic tribes, caused by desert conditions, made effective supervision difficult. Nevertheless at chosen places, one at least 320 kilometres from Nisbett Bath, substations were formed under the leadership of Hottentot preachers and teachers, among them David Afrikaner, a chief. Ridsdale sometimes with his wife, visited the outposts by wagon or on horseback to preach and converse with the people. His experiences are related in this book in interesting style, and his comprehensive account of the origins of the Bushmen, and of their habits, occupations and customs, make it a valuable book of reference.'

Mendelssohn (Sydney) South African Bibliography, volume 2, page 228. 'The experiences of a Wesleyan missionary in Namaqualand from 1843-1847. There is an account of the country and the Namaqua Hottentots who are described as mild and gentle, but cautious in their first contact with strangers'.