FOUR YEARS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

First edition: xii, 308 pages, aquatint frontispiece, rebound in half brown leather with matching brown cloth sides, titled gilt on the spine, light foxing on the title page, otherwise the contents are clean and bright, a very good copy.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) A South African Bibliography, volume 2, pages 248/9, ‘Sketches of life in the Cape Colony and Kaffraria during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. There is some information respecting the lives of the Boers of the interior at this period, with a description of the Hottentots and Kaffirs, and of the slave system of the country, together with some sporting tales….’

Cowper Rose is an unnoticed early traveller in South Africa. ‘He has been described, lavishly, as both Wordsworthian and Byronic in his prose and outlook.’ He concludes his account as follows: 'It  was  ten  months  since  I had  left  the  Bay that  now  lay  before  me,  and  in  that  time  I had seen  much  that,  in  after  life,  1 shall  often  recall. I had shared the hard life  of  the  elephant-shooter,  and  slept  in  the  bee-hive  hut  of  the Kaffer,  and  traversed  his  beautiful  country.  I had  visited  the  house  of  the  phlegmatic  boor, and  the  station  of  the  subdued-toned  missionary.  I had  seen  most  of  the  savage  animals  of the  country,  the  elephant,  the  rhinoceros,  the hippopotamus.  I had  sought  for  the  lion  in the  country  where  they  were  once  common, but  the  tract  had  been  partially  settled  on; and the  wild  beasts  retire  at  the  appearance  of  man, with  an  instinctive  feeling,  that  a being  more savage  and  relentless  than  themselves  has  invaded their  haunts,  and  that  their  ferocity  is no  match  for  his.  I had seen  the many-coloured birds. I had  wandered  through  the gloomy  arches  of  the boundless  forests,  where the  tall  trees  cast  a massive  shade  that  seems never  to  have  been  broken  by  one  ray  of  light. I had  seen  those  trees  with  their  many-coloured blossoms,  standing  in  beauty  and  in pride,  while the  rich  creepers,  that  hung  like  light  drapery from  their  wide-spreading  branches,  moved  with every  breeze,  affording  a striking  and  mournful contrast.  I had  seen  them  stretched  at their  length,  mouldering,  fallen  untouched  by man,  in  the  heart  of  their own dark  forests.  I had  feasted  on  the  loveliness  of  flowers,  in  the country  where  flowers  are  the  most  lovely,  and where  their  beauty  gladdens  the  lone  wilderness; for  the  pride  of  your  greenhouse  is,  in  Africa, but  a wild  flower.  I had  seen  society  under new  forms,  and  Nature  as  at  her  birth;  and  now the  Bay  lay  with  its  wide  sweep  stretched before me,  dotted  with  English  ships ; and  I end as  I began,  once  again  in  Cape  Town.'