WITH THE MOUNTED INFANTRY AND THE MASHONALAND FIELD FORCE 1896

First edition: xv, 308 pages + 48 pages of publisher’s catalogue, frontispiece, 2 folding sketch plans, 8 plates, line drawings in the text, blue cloth boards with pictorial gilt on the upper cover and some insect scarring, titled gilt on the spine, uncut edges, light foxing on the preliminary page , a very good copy.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography vol.1 page 19:The author was appointed to go out with the Mounted Infantry, and was placed in command of the troops (numbering 13 officers and 241 men) who embarked at Cape Town on the 25th of June 1896 for Beira. He gives an account of the port, comparing it to Caracas or Aden in point of discomfort and heat, and he mentions a curious incident with regard to the passage of the troops through Portuguese territory. The Governor stated that he had received instructions to allow 300 men to pass through the country, but that nothing was mentioned about their arms ; the point, however, was conceded. Innumerable difficulties appear to have assailed the force, with regard to the transport and supplies, but these seem to have been gradually overcome, and the Mashonaland Field Force, duly constituted, left Umtali for the field on July 28th.

Full details are given as to the order of the march, the first operation being the attack on Makoni's Kraal. This place was captured and destroyed, and about 200 Mashonas were killed, the attacking party only losing three men killed and three wounded. After some further engagements, Makoni offered to surrender on condition that his life should be spared, and at a meeting of the Council in Salisbury, at which Judge Vincent, Sir T. Scanlen, Mr. A. F. H. Duncan, and the author were present, it was unanimously resolved to accept the surrender on this condition. The High Commissioner, however, intervened, and stipulated that Makoni's condition should be granted provided that, " on his being brought before a Court of Justice and fairly tried, he was not proved to have been directly connected with any murders." Later on Makoni either surrendered or was taken prisoner, was tried by the Court-Martial for Rebellion, and shot, his defence being expressed in the following remarks : " It is all very well to call me a rebel, but the country belonged to me and my forefathers long before you came here."