WALKS AND SKETCHES AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

Second edition, enlarged: 198 + 2 pages publisher’s catalogue at the end, contemporary diced calf boards with gilt borders (corners worn), simply rebacked with a title label running along the spine, marbled endpapers (front free endpaper detached), signature at the head of the title page, occasional foxing.

Kennedy (R.F.) Africana Repository, pp. 85-6: ‘Robert Semple walked in the vicinity of Cape Town and as far as Simonstown, carrying on a most informative conversation with his dear friend Charles. In the second edition, I805, he explains who Charles is, in a footnote to p.10: "In presenting to the world a second and enlarged edition of this little work, I embrace the opportunity which it affords me of replying to a question which my friends have repeatedly asked. 'Who was Charles of whom you talk with so much warmth, and who is so constantly the companion of your walks?' To this I reply that in fact no friend ever accompanied me in the excursions which I have particularly described. I thrice ascended the Table Mountain alone; alone I stood upon its highest pinnacle; alone I looked up to heaven, and felt my heart overflow with gratitude. Yet the idea of a friend who is now dead was ever present with me, and I conceived myself perfectly at liberty to embody what I know would have been his thoughts, and his mode of expression had he indeed accompanied me. Such was the origin of Charles."'The journey to Plettenberg Bay was made on horseback and one of his companions was a brother merchant of the Cape.

'Mendelssohn in his Bibliography gives a long description of the book, but does not say who Robert Semple was. There is an interesting note about him by Margaret Kannemeyer in Africana Notes and News, vol.5, pp. 22-3, in which she draws attention to the fact that he is in the British Dictionary of National Biography: He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1766, of British parents. He travelled in many parts of the world and wrote several books of description and travel. He became a Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company and was killed in Canada, in 1816, in a fight with the men of a rival company. Eric Rosenthal in his Stars and Stripes in Africa, which deals with the part played by Americans in Africa, does not index Semple.

'The 2nd edition of the Walks includes an additional chapter on the Hottentots, and the journey to Plettenberg Bay has some additional matter.’