SCENES AND ADVENTURES IN GREAT NAMAQUALAND

First edition: 293 pages, + 16 pages publisher’s catalogue, frontispiece portrait, foxing mainly on the preliminary pages, and browning on the page edges, original brown cloth boards with pictorial gilt and title on the upper cover, titled gilt on the spine, neatly recased, a very good copy.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography vol 2 page 228: The experiences of a Wesleyan missionary in Namaqualand from 1843-1847. There is an account of the country and the Namaqua Hottentots who are described as mild and gentle, but cautious in their first contact with strangers.

Dictionary of South African Biography Vol.3 page 716: A Weslyan missionary, Ridsdale arrived in Cape Town in 1843. He was appointed to take over the Nisbett Bath (Warmbad) circuit in the south of Namaqualand. The wanderings of the nomadic tribes, caused by desert conditions, made effective supervision difficult. Nevertheless at chosen places, one at least 320 kilometres from Nisbett Bath, substations were formed under the leadership of Hottentot preachers and teachers, among them David Afrikaner, a chief. Ridsdale sometimes with his wife, visited the outposts by wagon or on horseback to preach and converse with the people. His experiences are related in this book in interesting style, and his comprehensive account of the origins of the Bushmen, and of their habits, occupations and customs, make it a valuable book of reference.'