SPORT AND WAR

With a Narrative of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh's visit to the Cape.

With map and illustrations.

First edition. 268 pages + 32 pages publisher's catalogue, frontispiece portrait, 6 plates, numerous black and white illustrations in the text, coloured folding map, original rust cloth with gilt elephant's head on the upper cover – the cover has watermarks on it, titled gilt on the spine, which is starting to fray at the top and the bottom, bookbinders ticket on the back pastedown endpaper corners bumped, a good copy.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography volume 1 page 128: Bisset joined the Bathurst volunteers as a boy of fifteen, on the proclamation of martial law, during the Kaffir War of 1834-5, and he soon received a commission, and gradually rose to high rank. A full account is given of the operations which led to the annexation of British Kaffraria and the surrender of Sandilli. There is a description of the visit of Prince Alfred to South Africa in i860, the author accompanying the Prince throughout his tour, and also on his second visit in 1867. General Bisset was appointed Lieut.-Governor of Natal in 1865. The volume concludes with some chapters on South African legends, and there are maps of S. E. Africa and British Kaffraria.

Note. In the evidence given by Lieut-Gen. (then Major) Bisset before the "Select Committee on the Kaffir Tribes" (1851), he stated that he had practically lived at the Cape all his life, having been brought there when only a year old by his father, a half-pay officer in the Navy, who was one of the 1820 settlers. He maintained that the Dutch had always been ready to fight in defence of their property, but have "a dread of being made soldiers." He did not think that the trek of the Boers could be stopped, but was of opinion that Sir Harry Smith's measures had saved the Colony from much loss and devastation.