THE ANNALS OF NATAL 1495 to 1845 (1888)

Publisher's original blue cloth bindings with gilt titles to spine.

Vol.I. xiv + 732pp.

Binding good with age-associated markings. Contents clean. Signed by Sarah Goldblatt on the front endpaper in 1921. Former owner's bookplate on front paste down.

Vol.II. xv + 484pp.

Binding good with age-associated markings. Contents clean. Signed by Sarah Goldblatt on the front endpaper in 1921. Former owner's bookplate on front paste down.

Although not generally considered to be the first Afrikaans female poet, Sarah Goldblatt is known as the first woman to have poems published in Afrikaans. She wrote and published three volumes of Afrikaans children's rhymes in 1920-21, preceding Elisabeth Eybers' first publication by fourteen years. Goldblatt was C. J. Langenhoven's literary editor and later became romantically involved with him. She was a founding member of SANLAM, one of South Africa's leading and longest-serving life insurance companies.

'The contents of the volumes embrace the period between the discovery of the country by Vasco da Gama, and the formal establishment of Natal as a British Colony in 1845. Mr. Bird's connection with the Government, which extended over a period of nearly forty years, placed him "in frequent intercourse with influential men among the emigrant Boers," and he states in a letter to the Hon. Secretary of the Natal Society (a copy of which is reproduced in the work), "the details of their adventures were familiar to me . . . I was also personally acquainted with some of the English who had come to the country before the advent of the African-Dutch. Thus, in seeking for records, I had a guidance, the want of which would have made the search more difficult." The introductory notes give a short sketch of the history of the country, which serves "to render intelligible an explanation, that seems in some instances indispensable, of the sources from which the record of the Annals have been derived." These include extracts from Government reports and correspondence, Cape Town newspapers, Moodie's Records, the posthumous papers of Mr. Fynn, and quotations from nearly every writer dealing with Natal from the earliest times. There is a copious index to each volume, which throws much light on the compilation, and the record, which is entirely unaccompanied by any expressed opinions of the compiler, is of the greatest value as a thoroughly unbiased and accurate production. Mr. Theal states "This work has been very carefully and faithfully executed by Mr. Bird . . . I know of no English document of importance that is not included in it, and of very few Dutch. It is a work of permanent value for historical purposes." ' - Mendelssohn Vol.I, page 126.