ZAMBESIA (Presentation copy)

First edition: 480 pages + 15 pages adverts, frontispiece portrait, 2 folding maps - one detached and torn at the first fold and the other parted at the folds (both maps in need of repair), numerous illustrations, brick red pictorial cloth over bevelled boards, titled gilt on the upper cover and spine, new endpapers.

Inscribed on a front free end paper: With the author's comps.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography vol. 1 page 996: An early modern account of that part of Africa known later on as Rhodesia. The work, which Mr. Mathers remarks is "necessary, to a large extent, of a collatitious character," is a compilation which brings together in a volume of moderate dimensions the whole of the information then available respecting this part of the continent.

There is a full account of the Mashonas and Matabeles, and also of the syndicates and concessions which formed the nucleus of the British South Africa (Chartered) Company, together with extracts from periodicals giving their views respecting the granting of the charter, and short notices of the leading men connected with the enterprise. The volume was published at a period when there was great need for the issue of a work of this nature, and it went through several editions: the war with Lobengula attracted much attention to Matabeleland, and the gigantic undertaking of Mr. Rhodes was looked on, by a large portion of the population of the British Empire, as the most fascinating and romantic episode connected with the nineteenth century.