Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa (OTTO BEIT\'S COPY)

Being the Narrative of the Last Eleven Years spent by the Author on the Zambesi and its Tributaries; With an Account of the Colonisation of Mashunaland and the Progress of the Gold Industry in that Country (London: Rowland Ward and Co., 1893) 8vo; contemporary half-calf and marbled boards; spine with raised bands, and gilt lettering to second and third compartments; t.e.g.; marbled endpapers; pp. 503, incl. index; plates; text illustrations; folding colour map. Otto Beit\'s copy, with his attractive bookplate to the front pastedown, and signed by him, in pencil, on half-title. Skillfully re-jointed, and backstrip laid down; binding a little rubbed and worn. A very attractive association copy of the first edition. (Mendelssohn II, p. 300; Czech, p. 145; Hosken, p. 180) Like his brother Alfred, Otto Beit was an ardent admirer of Cecil Rhodes, becoming a director of Rhodes\' BSA Co. He was on very friendly terms with Rhodes\' close associate Dr Leander Starr Jameson, whose cause Frederick Courteney Selous also championed. However, Beit himself, unlike his brother, was not embroiled in the ill-fated Jameson Raid. Inheriting his brother\'s estate in 1906, Otto Beit devoted himself to the activities of the Beit Trust, the goal of which was the advancement of transport in central Africa, major successes being the construction of the Beit Bridge over the Limpopo, and the latticed, girder bridge over the Luangwa on the road to Chipata. This book represents a meeting point between two men who moved in the same circles, and who are counted among the most outstanding figures in the opening-up and development of the Rhodesias. \'After a short visit to England in 1881, Selous returned to South Africa in order to make collections of specimens of some South African fauna for the British Museum and the South African Museum, &c. He was thus engaged from 1882 to 1887, and the first nine chapters of this volume are devoted to a narrative of his experiences with the Boers and the natives while engaged in his hunting expeditions, together with some account of the native wars and the raids of the Matabeles. Other chapters give particulars of journeys amongst the Mashikolumbwe and Barotsi people, the pioneer expeditions of the British South Africa Company, and the condition of Mashonaland, with notes on its previous history, the gold-mining industry in Rhodesia at this period, and reminiscences of hunting and adventure extending over a lengthy period. There are many interesting passages referring to the author\'s intercourse with Mr. Frank Mandy, C. J. Rhodes, Dr. Jameson, Sam Edwards, Montague Kerr, Lobengula, Khama, and many other celebrated South African personages and pioneers, and an excellent account of the Chartered Company\'s expedition to Mashonaland, in which Mr. Selous took prominent part, together with some details respecting the disputes with the Portuguese officials.\' - Mendelssohn