South Africa

This is an attractively hand-coloured first edition of the landmark 1834 map of South Africa produced from the latest information available to the Colonial Office in London. This map was published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK).

The Society's map appeared six weeks after the map by John Arrowsmith, derived from the samel Colonial Office information:  "Both fulfilled a long-felt need for a reliable map of the country and have long been lauded by historians as the best maps of South Africa which were published at a time when the demography of the subcontinent was about to undergo a significant change."  "The map indicates that it was Compiled from M.S. maps in the Colonial Office, as well as from information furnished by Captain Owen's Survey. Like all contemporary small-scale maps of newly discovered areas of the British Empire, both maps were compilation maps put together by using various sources of information." (see Prof. Elri Liebenberg).

The map was considered to be 'state of the art' - it was included in Steedman's 1835 publication of Wanderings and Adventures in the Interior of Southern Africa.  The map includes the magisterial districts of Swellendam, Beaufort, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Albany, Worcester and George.

What sets this map apart from Arrowsmith's larger map, is the inclusion of four insets: the environs of Cape Town (the largest town in the Cape Colony); George (from which the notoriously treacherous Cradock Kloof Pass crossed the Outeniqua Mountains) and Graham's Town (at that time the second largest town in the Colony); and a plan of central Cape Town .  

The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was founded in 1826, mainly at the instigation of Lord Henry Peter Brougham. The goal of the Society was to distribute useful information via a series of publications to the English working and middle classes. This map is the 1834 and first edition, which was published by Baldwin and Cradock. 

This landmark map is printed on firm paper, has been hand coloured, is in very good condition (there is a thin 5cm crease below Cape Agulhas); and will frame beautifully.