Trekking the Great Thirst: Travel and Sport in the Kalahari Desert

First edition, 1912; T. Fisher Unwin, London. Octavo, 15 x 22.5cm. 359pp. Green cloth boards with gilt picture and titles to front and gilt titles to spine. Top edge gilt. Introductory note by Ralph Williams, Forward by  F.C. Selous., Contents, List of Illustrations and Maps, Index. Illustrated with frontispiece of Lord Selbourne, a further 85 monochrome plates, and 4 folding maps.

'Trekking The Great Thirst' was first published in book form in 1912, much of it having originated as contemporary articles written for sporting and other popular magazines. It deals mainly with journeys and hunting expeditions of the author in Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana) in the years 1904-1919.

Sir Arnold Wienholt Hodson, KCMG (1881 – 1944) was a British colonial administrator who was Governor in turn of the Falkland Islands, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. Hodson was born in Bovey Tracey, Devonshire, in 1881. He was the eldest son of Algernon Hodson and Sarah Wienholt. He was educated at Felsted. Hodson was in Central Queensland 1900 to 1902 and was part of the Queensland Contingent for South Africa in 1902. He served in the Transvaal 1902-04. From 1904 until 1912 he was in the Bechuanaland Protectorate Police Force. His duties as a policeman and magistrate took him into the most remote parts of the territory, one of the his missions being the Damaraland frontier at the time of the Herero and Nama Wars in German South-West Africa. He was also much involved in trying to reconcile conflicts between tribal chiefs. His several political missions cover a most important period of the history of Botswana.

One of his journeys, in 1906, was made in the company of Sir Ralph Williams, Resident Commissioner, and was from Serowe to Livingstone and the Victoria Falls via Lake Ngami. Four years later Hodson organised a hunting trip for High Commissioner Selborne, from Pandamatenga to Selous' old camp on the Mabebe Flats and on to the Chobe. He then went on to Somaliland 1912-14. He served as Consul in Southern Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) 1914-23, then Consul in South West Abyssinia from 1923-1926.

Condition: Board hinges, edges and spine tips worn; Corners bumped and fraying. Text block sound and tight. All maps very good. Previous owner’s inscription to pastedown with other pencil and light pen markings. Overall Good.