Catalogue - Reprints (Africana - Gold Series)
Rhodesiana
Reprint Library
First (Gold) Series
Vols. 1-36
Created / Reprinted between
1968 - 1974 by the then Books of Rhodesia.
| Back to Catalogue | | [ Home | Catalogues | News | The Company | Business Card ] |
THE FIRST SERIES of the Rhodesiana Reprint Library - also
entitled the "Gold Series" - comprises 36 volumes, most
of which are facsimile re-productions of rare and out-of-print
works on the pioneering and growth of Rhodesia. The books may be
regarded as pieces in a jig-saw puzzle: each deals with a
specific subject - exploration, transport, war, politics,
archaeology, hunting and so forth - and, when the pieces are
fitted together, they form a comprehensive and fascinating
picture of Rhodesia's (now Zimbabwe) past.
Of uniform size, each reprint in the standard edition is case-bound
(hard backed) and presented in a specially designed, colourfull
dust jacket bearing the family identity of the Series. There is
also a fully leather-bound edition that was limited to 150 copies.
Many of the volumes contain illustrative and textual material
additional to the original.
The Second - "Silver" - Series was inaugurated in
January 1975. This set is described in a separate Catalogue (web
page presently under construction).
Next
Vol.
Volume 1- THE GOLD REGIONS OF SOUTH EASTERN AFRICA - Thomas
Baines (Reprinted 1968)
THOMAS BAINES ranked only just below Livingstone, Stanley and
Park in the hierarchy of Victorian explorers in Africa. His
talents, however, were not confined to the making of discoveries:
he was also a prolific writer and a fine painter, map-maker and
naturalist. Born in King's Lynn, England, in 1820, Baines began
to make a name for himself as an artist with the British forces
in the Eastern Cape of South Africa during the Kaffir Wars.
Thereafter he undertook several arduous journeys north, through
what later (in the 1890s) became Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), to the
Zambesi river, joined Livingstone's Zambesi Expedition and, in
1862, visited the Victoria Falls by way of South West Africa. In
1868 he was engaged by a British commercial firm to investigate
the newly-discovered gold fields of Tati and "Matabililand"
north of the Limpopo. His prospecting expeditions, which took him
as far as the Hartley Hills, 60 miles from present day Salisbury
(now Harare), provide the material for this book. The work is
notable for its fascinating first-hand reports on mineral finds,
indigenous native customs, meetings with the hardy people of the
pre-Pioneer era, its descriptions of early gold workings, veld
craft and wagon travel, and for an eye-witness account of the
coronation of the Matabele King Lobengula.
Facs. repro, 1877 edit, with new material; 240 pp. inc. T
Baines biog. and 50 pp. Victorian advertisements; illus.
paintings & sketches produced en route, detailed pull-out map
of Gold Fields and Cape Colony drawn by Baines assisted by other
notable explorers; dust jacket depicts Baines and Hartley
exploring; pull-out facs. letter from David Livingstone; new
Publishers' Intro. ISBNs 0 86920 000 3 (standard) and 0 86920
0011 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 2 - SUNSHINE & STORM IN RHODESIA - FC Selous (Reprinted
1968)
A VIVID firsthand account of the Matabele nation's rebellion
against Cecil Rhodes's settlers in 1895, three years after the
founding of modern Bulawayo. Frederick Courteney Selous, one of
southern Africa's greatest men of the early veld, was born into
an intellectual and prosperous English family (his father was
Chairman of the London Stock Exchange) in 1851, and at the age of
19 sailed for Africa to become an elephant hunter, an occupation
at which he excelled from the beginning. For nearly 20 years he
explored, hunted, traded and studied with a keen naturalist's eye
the country between the Limpopo river and the Congo basin,
providing the inspiration for Rider Haggard's Alan Quatermain. In
1890, Cecil John Rhodes selected Selous as guide to the famed
Pioneer Column which occupied present-day Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe),
With the outbreak of the Matabele Rebellion six years later he
assumed command of "H" Troop of the Bulawayo Field
Force, and, when peace returned, produced this gripping and
informative narrative of the events he had taken part in. Selous
was killed in Tanganyika in 1917, at the age of 65, while serving
with the Royal Fusiliers.
Facs. repro, second (7896) edit; 299 pp. inc. detailed
Appendices, Index & Victorian advertisements; illus. sketches
& 70 pp. photos. Dust jacket design based on Ellerton Fry
photo 1890 Column in laager, with bust of author superimposed;
new Publishers' Intro. ISBNs 086920 002 X (standard) and 0 86920
003 8 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 3 - THE OLD
TRANSPORT ROAD - Stanley Portal Hyatt (Reprinted 1969)
A PUNGENT, perceptive and highly entertaining account of trek-oxen,
wagons and the ways of the transport rider before the railways
began to open up Central Africa. Stanley Portal Hyatt came to
Africa to seek his fortune during the 1890s, drove supply wagons
through the virgin veld for some ten years of unremitting toil
and was rewarded, eventually, with little more than fond memories,
financial ruin and ill-health. Hyatt writes fluently and
knowledgeably about life on "The Road", about the
unspoilt and sometimes savagely inhospitable countryside of early
Rhodesia, about the skills and courage needed to get the wagons
through. He writes lovingly of his fellow-riders, and of his
animals. For contemporary society, and for commercially inspired
"progress", however, he has nothing but bitter contempt.
The Old Transport Road is an informative and absorbing
book. It is also a tribute to those who braved the trackless
wilderness by ox-wagon - men who can legitimately be compared to
the 19th century pioneers of modern America. It is complementary
to George Pauling's The Chronicles of a Contractor,
which deals with another aspect of transport development in
Rhodesia - the coming of the railways.
Facs. repro. 7914 edit. 307 pp; illus. 72 pp. photos.; dust
jacket repro, of Ellerton Fry photo of 1890 Column crossing
Nuanetsi river; new Publishers' Intro. ISBNs 0 86920 004 6 (standard)
and 0 86920 005 4 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 4 - THE
CHRONICLES OF A CONTRACTOR - George Pauling (Reprinted 1969)
AN OUTSTANDING autobiography by a colourful and
dynamic late-Victorian engineer who won international repute for
his accomplishments, not least of which was the building of many
of southern Africa's major railway links. Big George Pauling came
to South Africa from Britain at the age of 20, founded Pauling
& Co. in 1877 with his brother, and completed his first
construction job in 1881 - the 65-mile Port Alfred Railway.
Thereafter, contracts came thick and fast: Sterkstroom to Aliwal
North, Orange River to Kimberley, Springs to Krugersdorp,
Johannesburg to Pretoria and, the most herculean project of all,
the first stage of the line between Beira, on the Mocambique
coast, to Umtali in the highlands of eastern Rhodesia. On this
undertaking he lost 60 per cent of his labour force in each of
the first three years through malaria, blackwater fever and the
depredations of marauding animals. Meanwhile the company had
broadened its scope of activity to include railway construction
in the Middle East, public works, dam, harbour and bridge
building in Greece, Angola, China, the Argentine and India. Cecil
Rhodes commissioned Pauling to complete the first stage of his
ambitious Cape-to-Cairo line. Only 800 copies of the original The
Chronicles of a Contractor are believed to have been published,
for private circulation, in 1926.
Facs. repro. first (J926) edit with new material; 264 pp. inc.
new Appendices (contemporary letters, minutes, previously
unpublish eo account of interview with Joseph Chamberlain,
obituary, etc.); illus. 69 photos, sketches, cartoons & fold-out
full colour map; dust jacket features posterised portrait of
author; new Publishers' Intro. ISBNs 0 86920 006 2 (standard) and
0 86920 007 0 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 5 - THE
RUINED CITIES OF MASHONALAND - J. Theodore Bent (Reprinted 1969)
AN INTRIGUING view of the archaeological relics of pre-colonial
African cultures seen through the exploratory eyes of a noted
Victorian traveller. J. Theodore Bent, F.S.A., F.R.G.S., and his
wife Mabel journeyed widely among the Aegean Islands, in Turkey,
through parts of Africa and in Arabia, undertaking archaeological
research for the British Museum, the Hellenic Society and the
Royal Geographical Society. They made three expeditions to Africa
and one of these to the fabulous ruins ot Zimbabwe, capital of
the medieval Monomotapan Empire of South-Central Africa and
legendary location of King Solomon's Mines is the subject of this
large work. Bent was the first archaeologist to excavate Zimbabwe
and, although his "Phoenician hypothesis" was later
discredited by the results of carbon-dating tests, his
observations in The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland are interesting
and valuable for the light they throw on the life-style of the
indigenous people at the time, and on the nature of the settler
administration of Mashonaland in the 1890s. The book is the best-known
of Bent's three works, having run to three editions. Bent led
several expeditions to Arabia, where he eventually contracted
malaria and died, in London, in 1897.
Facs. repro. third (1896) edit; 459 pp. inc. Appendices,
Index & Victorian publishers' advertisements; illus. numerous
sketches (many by author's wife); dust jacket depicts two-colour
repro. Conical Tower, Zimbabwe Ruins; new Publishers' Intro.
ISBNs 0 86920 008 9 (standard) and 0 86920 009 7 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 6 -
RHODESIAN RHYMES - Cullen Gouldsbury (Reprinted 1969)
A DELIGHTFUL anthology of poems about the amusing characters and
social life in British Africa during the early 1900s, and about
African folklore, on which the author was a recognised authority.
Said the Graphic reviewer nearly 70 years ago: "Mr.
Gouldsbury has done for South Africa what Lindsay Gordon did for
Australia. He writes verse that will hold the Plain Man.".
Known also as "the Kipling of Rhodesia", Gouldsbury's
poetry is in turn lyrical, picturesque, breezy, humorous, tender
and beautiful. Henry Cullen Couldsbury entered the service of the
British South Africa Company in Southern Rhodesia in 1902, and
was transferred to Northern Rhodesia, where he was promoted to
Native Commissioner, in 1910. He died during the First World War
while acting as liaison officer between the Belgian and British
military forces in Uganda. He was 35 years old. Gouldsbury was a
successful novelist (Circe's Garden, and God's
Outpost), and author of the classic ethnological work, The
Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia. His verse appeared in
numerous periodicals, and was published in anthology form in 1932.
Reprint of 1932 anthology, with new material inc. 8 poems;
new Publishers' Intro., contemporary "Opinions of the Press";
and illus.; 264 pp.; dust jacket depicts portrait of author ISBNs
0 869200100 (standard) and 086920011 9 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 7 - MEN,
MINES AND ANIMALS IN SOUTH AFRICA - Lord Randolph Churchill. (Reprinted
1969)
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL's illustrious father roughs it in the veld,
writes about gold fields and wagon-trekking, and presents an
illuminating picture of Cecil Rhodes's Rhodesia. Lord Randolph
Churchill had a brilliant and meteoric political career. Born in
1849, the third son of the seventh Duke of Marlborough, he
entered Parliament at the age of 26, became Secretary for India
at 36 and Chancellor of the Exchequer a year later. On his
political downfall soon afterwards his interests turned to travel.
As a shareholder in the British South Africa Company he decided,
in 1891, to visit southern Africa to discover for himself whether
Rhodes's domain would, as men predicted, become the new El Dorado.
The Daily Graphic paid him UK Pound 100 apiece for a series of
letters on his travels and these were subsequently republished as
the basis of this book. Churchill wrote in detail of what he saw
en route through the Cape Colony, the Transvaal, Bechuanaland and
Mashonaland. Accompanied by a large entourage, including an
eminent American mining engineer, he spent several months in
Mashonaland, and he has given posterity a highly informative
chronicle embellished with delightful illustrations and a frank (and
at the time unpopular) assessment of Cecil Rhodes's most
ambitious colonial venture.
Facs. repro. third (1893) edit, 339 pp. inc. Index; lavishly
il/us. with line drawings, sketches and full-colour fold-out map;
dust jacket a two-colour montage depicting prospecting, mining
and exploration scenes of J89Os; new Publishers' Intro; ISBNs 0
86920 012 1 (standard) and 0 86920 013 5 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 8 -
ADVENTURES IN MASHONALAND - R. Blennerhassen and L.Sleeman (Reprinted
1969)
A SAGA of three Victorian nurses in Africa. The fever swamps and
lion-infested mountain fastnesses of Rhodesia's eastern highlands
were no place for refined young ladies, but they did not deter
Nurses Blennerhasseff, Sleeman and Welby from setting up hospital
services in the territory. In 1891 the three women sailed up the
Pungwe River from Beira (there was neither road nor railway at
the time) to 'Mpanda's, and then took the bush baths over the
hills to Penhalonga, a journey of some 200 miles. Here, at Sabi
Ophir Hill they opened their "hospital", in a rough mud
hut. Their supplies and personal belongings had been abandoned by
their porters en route, and their entire equipment consisted of
"two or three iron spoons, two tin mugs, a couple of pots of
Liebig's extract of meat and a packet of Maizena". This
volume reveals the story of their enterprise in the face of
extreme privation and intimidating natural hazards. It is a tale
of outstanding courage and initiative, an impressive chapter in
the history of nursing in Southern Africa.
Facs. repro. 1893 edit. with additions and illustrations; 348
pp. inc. contemporary publishers' catalogue; illus. photos.; dust
jacket depicts panel from RHODESIAN TAPESTRY; new Publishers'
intro. ISRNs 0 86920 014 3 (standard) and 0 86920 015 1 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 9 - A NOBODY
IN MASHONALAND - C. E. Finlayson (Reprinted 1970)
THE STORY of a newspaper "tenderfoot" who followed the
trail of the first Rhodesian settlers - with near disastrous but
very entertaining results. Charles Edward Finlason, known
affectionately as "Fin", was a delightful personality
who made his name as a journalist and cricketer in South Africa
in the 1880s and 1890s. Born in England, he emigrated to
Kimberley when a young man, played for Kimberley Pirates' Cricket
Club and, in 1889, represented South Africa against Major Warton's
English team at Port Elizabeth. A year after Rhodes's Pioneers
had crossed the Limpopo river to occupy Mashonaland, he journeyed
to Salisbury by ox-drawn cart, and wrote of his experiences with
both humour and an endearing modesty. Being such a novice at the
trekking game he was blissfully unaware of the danger in which he
often placed himself and was fortunate neither to have been eaten
by lions nor to have hopelessly lost his way (he was unable to
read his compass correctly!). Following so close on the heels of
Randolph Churchill's lavishly-appointed expedition, (see Men,
Mines and Animals of South Africa, Volume 7 in this series)
his choice of title for this book was almost certainly an oblique
tongue-in-cheek reference to the "noble lord".
Facs. repro. 1893 edit 330 pp.; inc. extracts from
contemporary press notices, and Frontispiece of author; full-colour
dust jacket; new Publishers' Intro. ISBNs 0 86920 016 X standard)
and 0 86920 017 8 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 10 - ELEVEN
YEARS IN CENTRAL SOUTH AFRICA - Thomas Morgan Thomas (Reprinted
1970)
A RARE work and something of a collector's item, Eleven Years
describes the founding and development of the first permanent
white settlement in the land north of the Limpopo river. Thomas
Morgan Thomas, together with John Moffat and William Sykes, were
appointed by the London Missionary Society in 1859 to establish a
mission station at Inyati, among the Matabele of King Mzilikazi.
This they did, but the enterprise was not an unqualified success:
the missionaries made no evident progress in the spiritual field,
and quarrelled unceasingly among themselves. Eventually Thomas
was obliged to resign from the Society and leave Inyati.
Determined to return to Matabeleland, where he was popular with
the indigenous people, he wrote this work in order to raise the
necessary funds. Eleven Years in Central South Africa
became one of the best known books in Britain, and the author
came back to the land he loved. This work is one of the earliest
dealing with Matabeleland and is particularly valuable for its
observations on the customs of the Matabele people, their history
prior to the formal Occupation in 1893, and for descriptions of
the fauna and flora encountered on his long journey from Cape
Town and on his expedition to the Zambesi (Thomas is generally
recognised to have been the first white man to reach the central
Zambesi from the south).
Facs. repro. 1873 edit; 418 pp. inc. drawings by author's
wife and copies of sketches by Baines; fold-our map; two-colour
dust jacket depicts tribal kraal scene; new Publishers' Intro.
ISBNs 0869200186 (standard) and 0869200194 (deluxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 11 - SALLY
IN RHODESIA - Sheila Macdonald (Reprinted 1970)
THIS book originated as a series of letters written by a young
bride in Rhodesia to her mother in Britain, between 1901 and 1912.
It tells, in charming conversational style, of the rigours of
domestic life in early Salisbury (now Harare), the raising of a
young family, the social life of the day and the activities of
her husband "Toby". Sheila Macdonald's delightful
humour ripples through the book and is at its best, perhaps, when
she recounts how she copes with the culinary exploits of
inexperienced domestic servants. Sally in Rhodesia ran
to many editions in the United Kingdom and Australia, and became
something of an institution in Rhodesia, a classic on the family
life of "the settler". "Sally" (nee Sheila
MacKenzie) was born in New Zealand, where her father ran a sheep
station and was, for a time, a Member of the New Zealand
Parliament. After the death of her first husband in 1924 she left
Rhodesia for England, where she supported her family by writing
books. In 1933 she remarried and lived with her husband in
Tanganyika and Kenya before eventually retiring to Cape Town in
South Africa. Highly recommended as light reading.
Reprint of 1927 edit with additional illustrations; 207 pp;
12 illus; full colour dust jacket; new Publishers' Intro. and
Preface, ISBNs 0869200208 (standard) and 0869200216 (deluxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 12 - ON THE
SOUTH AFRICAN FRONTIER - William Harvey Brown (Reprinted 1970)
REPRINTED in 1970 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the
arrival of the 1890 Pioneer Column, and the establishment of
Salisbury, Rhodesia's capital (now Harare, Zimbabwe), and also as
a tribute to the part played by William Harvey Brown and his
fellow Americans in the founding and early development of
Rhodesia. A naturalist attached to the Smithsonian Institution,
the author served as one of the Pioneer Corps, trailblazers to
Cecil Rhodes's earliest settlers. Brown remained in Rhodesia
because, as he says, "for the first time in my life I felt
that I was helping to make history, that I had witnessed the
laying of the cornerstone of what, by virtue of the natural
resources and fertility of the country, would one day become a
populous and valuable colony. He became farmer, mine-owner and
timber-man, and eventually, in 1909-1910, Mayor of Salisbury. In
this book, the author describes in detail the march of the Column
and the adventurous first eight years of white settlement, and
throws some fascinating sidelights on the quality of pioneer life
in early Rhodesia. On The South African Frontier is one of the
most outstanding books to have been written during the period. It
is particularly valuable for Brown's observations on race
problems arising from the forced mixing of two wholly different
cultures.
Facs. repro. 1899 edit. with additions; 457 pp. fl/us.; new
material inc. photos., Appendices (facs. pp. from author's press
cuttings took, and Mayor's Minute); new Publishers' Intro.; full
colour fold-out maps (Rhodesia, South and Central Africa); 3-cot
dust jacket depicts raising of flag, Fort Salisbury, 1890. ISBNs
0 869200224 (standard) and 0859200233 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 13 -
MEMORIES OF MASHONALAND - G. W. H. Knight-Bruce (Reprinted 1970)
RECOLLECTIONS of the first Bishop of Mashonaland, the territory
north of the Limpopo occupied by Cecil Rhodes's settlers in 1890.
Educated at Eton and Oxford, Bishop Knight-Bruce was ordained in
1876. He ministered in the London slums of Bethnal Green before
being consecrated Bishop of Bloemfontein in 1886. Two years later,
having obtained the Matabele King Lobengula's permission, he
journeyed to the Zambesi river, and covered some 1 500 miles
visiting tribal cheiftains throughout Mashonaland, persuading
them to accept "teachers". In so doing, he gained wide
personal experience of the African people and their ways, and
this book is especially informative on the domestic life,
religious beliefs, customs and character of the Mashonas, and on
the nature of their subjugation by the Gaza and the Matabele.
Knight-Bruce believed that "christianising the natives"
prepared them to "face the world of European immigration",
and he justified his conviction by citing the example of Khama,
who successfully stood up to Lobengula but who "dreaded the
white man's drink more than the assegais of the Matabele".
After the arrival of the Pioneer Column his ministry was extended
to the new white settlements and, in 1891, he was appointed first
Bishop of Mashonaland. He served as chaplain to the Column which
marched against Lobengula in 1893, an event which he describes in
detail.
Facs. repro. 1895 edit. 248 pp.; illus., frontispiece and
fold-out map Mashonaland and Manicaland; new Publishers' Intro; 3-cot
dust jacket depictsauthorlSBNs 0869200240 (standard) and
0869200259 (deluxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 14 - A
HUNTER'S WANDERINGS IN AFRICA - F. C. Selous (Reprinted 1970)
AN acknowledged classic on wild life and hunting on both sides of
the Zambesi by the most renowned of elephant hunters. Written
during an era when ivory was the principal commodity of trade
with the interior of Africa, and an era when the continent was
still the subject of romantic speculation and prediction, A
Hunter's Wanderings quickly became a textbook for aspirant
hunters, explorers and naturalists. The book is a detailed
narrative of nearly a decade spent in the virgin veld of
Matabeleland and Mashonaland during the 1870s and 1880s, and of
exploratory expeditions beyond the Zambesi river. Few men have
described the life of an African big game hunter better, or left
a richer written legacy on the fauna of the land that later
became Rhodesia, than Frederick Courteney Selous. During his
lifetime Selous extended the limits of his hunting grounds far
beyond the haunts of Africa's elephant and lion: to Asia Minor,
North America, Scandinavia and Iceland. Among his intimate
friends was President Theodore Roosevelt, himself a hunter of
some renown. Roosevelt wrote of Selous: "He led a singularly
adventurous and fascinating life, with just the right
alternations between the wilderness and civilization. He added
much to the sum of human knowledge and interest."
Facs. repro. 1881 edit. 455 pp inc. Index, Appendices; il/us.
wildlife sketches; dust jacket design based on T. Baines hunting
sketch; new Publishers' Intro. ISBNs 086920026 7 (standard) and
0869200275 (deluxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 15 - THE LOG
OF A NATIVE COMMISSIONER - H. N. Hemans (Reprinted 1971)
AN excellent account of the solitary life, the responsibilities
and routines of a Native Commissioner stationed in the remote
vastness of Rhodesia in the years before World War I. As the
principal representative of government in the rural areas, the
Native Commissioner was charged with a huge variety of
responsibilities: from collection of taxes to the administration
of justice; from the control of smallpox and locust swarms to the
allocation of land. He had to be administrator, manager,
agriculturalist, civil engineer judge, psychologist, architect,
builder, doctor and vet, and from him was required absolute
integrity, and dedication to the task of bringing a better life
to the indigenous peoples while, at the same time, respecting
their traditional institutions. Such a man was Herbert Nassau
Hemans, who was posted to the Sebungwe area, a semi-arid,
inhospitable and tsetse fly infested region south of the Zambesi
river. Sebungwe's untamed wildness had a special appeal for him,
not least because of the opportunities it gave for hunting,
exploration and study of its primitive peoples. In this book he
describes his lonely but incident- and intarest-filled life in
modest, straightforward style. Highlights of the story, perhaps,
are his encounters with wild animals and a 200-mile boat trip
down the Zambesi to the Kariba Gorge. Hemans' ethnological notes
on the Batonka and Bashankwe tribes are of special interest.
Facs. repro. 1935 edit. 224 pp. inc. Index; il/us. (photos);
dust jacket depicts author on safari; new Publishers' intro.
ISBNs 0869200283 (standard) and 086920029 1 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 16 - RHODES:
A LIFE - J. G. McDonald (Reprinted 1971)
CECIL JOHN RHODES was one of the giants, of British Imperial
history, a man of incredible vision, energy and enterprise. Sent
to South Africa from England at the age of 17 in 1870, without
money or prospects and in poor health, he had, by the time he was
37, taken his degree at Oxford, gained control of the world's
diamond industry, became a powerful influence in the Transvaal
goldfields, obtained important mineral rights in the trans-Limpopo
territory of Mashonaland, created the British South Africa
Company which pioneered Rhodesia, become Prime Minister of the
Cape Colony and a legend in his own lifetime. It was Rhodes's
dream to create universal peace through the agency of a world
power comprising Great Britain and the United States of America,
and to build a great federation in southern Africa as the first
stage in Britain's Cape-to-Cairo domain. A man of such monumental
ambition was, not surprisingly, a complex personality and few
could claim to know him well. Sir James McDonald was one of his
close associates for twelve years and had personal experience of
the great man's warm humanity - a privilege enjoyed by few of his
biographers and detractors His biography, which ran to numerous
editions when it was first published in 1927, is notable for the
intimate light it throws on Rhodes's character and career.
McDonald was encouraged to write it by Rudyard Kipling.
Facs. repro. 1927 edit. 403 pp. inc. index; illus. photos and
full-col map; fulkcol. dust jacket repro. Mortimer Menpes'
portrait of Rhodes; new Publishers' intro. ISONs 0869200305 (standard)
and 086920031 3 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 17 - THE
DOWNFALL OF LOBENGULA - Edited by W. A. Wills and 1. T.
Collingridge (Reprinted 1971)
A VALUABLE and fascinating piece of Africana, and generally
regarded as the British South Africa Company's official version
of the Matabele War in which Rhodes's settlers finally entrenched
their position north of the Limpopo. Written from the Chartered
Company's standpoint, the account lacks impartiality. It is,
nevertheless, a basic reference source and one of the most note-worthy
books to be produced in the Rhodesiana Reprint Library Series.
The work is nominally a history of the cause and effect of the
War, but in fact its scope is wider, covering the period from the
arrival of Mzilikazi, in what is present day Rhodesia (now
Zimbabwe), to the death of his successor, Lobengula. The origins
of the British South Africa Company are traced and the Occupation
by the Pioneer Column in 1890 is recounted. It was published only
nine months after the disastrous loss of the Shangani Patrol, and
Victorian patriotic fervour shouts from its pages. Most of the
contemporary reviews were highly favourable. The principal
portion of the text was contributed by five noted personalities:
Major P. W. Forbes (officer-in-charge of the ill-fated Shangani
expedition}; Major Sir John C. Willoughby; H. Rider Haggard;
Frederick Courteney Selous and P.B.S. Wrey. The new Publishers
have slightly reduced the size of the original 1894 edition to
conform with the format of the Series.
Facs.repro.1894edit354 pp.inc.Index andVictorian
advenisements; illus. photos and sketches, fold-out map; full-col
dust jacket; new Publishers' Intro. ISBNs 086920032 1 (standard)and
086920033X (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 18 - MELINA
BORKE - As told by herself (Reprinted 1971)
ROMANTIC and partly fictionalised autobiography which moves
briskly through the pioneering era of Bulawayo, Rhodesia, the
1896 Rebellion and the Anglo-Boer War, where the author served as
a nurse. The dust-jacket of the first {1939) edition stated:
"Few women now living could tell of personal adventures as
remarkable as those here recounted. A mother and widow at 15 -
knew Rhodes, Barnato and Kruger - left the turmoil of diamond-digging
in Kimberley for the hazards of the northward trek - started a
nursing home in Bulawayo - saved son and sister-in-law from
Matabele warrior, did heroic work in the hospitals during the
Boer War - was with the force that relieved Mafeking - received
from Baden-Powell the Red Cross flag that flew over the hospital
during the siege - was decorated by King Edward VII..." In
truth, Melina Rorke's "amazing experiences" are
compounded of both fact and invention, but major events recounted
are generally historically correct. The mysteries surrounding
Melina's life remain. The newly-compiled Publishers' Introduction
clarifies some of the obscurities, however, and the new dust-jacket,
prepared after the Introduction was written, throws considerable
light on the family history. (Antecedents are traced to the 1820
Settlers in South Africa.) This is a spirited narrative, highly
recommended as light reading.
Facs. repro. 1939 edit 285 pp.; illus. photos; new
biographical information in Publishers' Intro.; dust jacket
carries portrait of author lSBNs 0869200348 (standard) and
0869200356 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 19 - THE
REAL RHODESIA - Ethel Tawse Jollie (Reprinted 1973)
THIS book was written on the eve of Rhodesia's assumption of
Responsible Government after 33 years of British South Africa
Company administration. It is a profile of the Rhodesia of the
early Twenties, and covers an important transitional period in
the political life of the young country. The author pleads the
case for self-government, interprets the special character of
Rhodesia and Rhodesians, and expresses their political
aspirations. The Real Rhodesia is valuable background
reading for an understanding of some of the issues and attitudes
inherent in the current Anglo-Rhodesian dispute. Mrs Ethel Tawse
Jollie was tbe organising secretary of the Responsible Government
Association (1918-1919) and a highly energefic protagonist of
self rule. She was elected to the Legislative Council in 1920 and,
with the grant of Responsible Government, became a Member of the
first Rhodesian Parliament (1923-1927), being the first woman to
sit in an Empire Parliament. A fluent speaker, she was noted for
her contributions to debate and for her published writings in
leading British quarterlies. The daughter of a doctor, she
married Archibald Colquhoun, the first Administrator of
Mashonaland, in 1900. She visited Rhodesia in 1904 and, after the
death of her husband in 1914, returned to settle. A year later
she married J. Tawse Jollie, a farmer. Mrs. Jollie died in 1950.
Facs. repro. 1924 edit. 304 pp. plus Appendices; illus:
photos and fold-out map; full-col. dust jacket; new Publishers'
Intro. ISBNs 0869200364 (standard) and 0869200372 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 20 - WITH
THE MOUNTED INFANTRY AND THF MASHONALAND FIELD FORCE, 1895 - E. A.
H. Alderson (1971)
A CHRONICLE of the military campaign to put down the 1896
rebellion which the Africans of Mashonaland staged against Cecil
Rhodes's settlers. The Matabele Rebellion, which broke out in
March, 1896, had by June of that year spread to Mashonaland. The
initial stages were marked by the brutal murder of hundreds of
white settlers on lonely farms and mines and the withdrawal of
the small communities into laager. The first task of such forces
as could be mustered was to escort civilians to the safety of the
laagers, and to undertake punitive measures. The Matabele Relief
Force, under Col. Plumer, subsequently went into action in
Matabeleland. During July a force of mounted infantry originally
sent from Aldershot under Col. Alderson to serve in Matabeleland,
arrived in Mashonaland via Beira, the Portuguese East African
port. This book is an account of the five-month campaign
conducted by Alderson, who played a major role in the subjugation
of the Mashona rebels. The rebellion was finally ended in the
October of 1897. Alderson's work, which is supported by maps,
illustrations and statistical data, is valuable for its details
on engagements which have perhaps been overshadowed by the more
dramatic and more publicised incidents of the period.
Facs. repro. 1898 edit. with additions. 295 pp. inc.
Appendices, Index; plus 40 pp. 1898 publishers' catalogue; illus.
line drawings, photos, maps, diagrams. 3-col dust jacket, gold on
blue; new Pubhshers' Intro. lSBNs 0869200380 (standard) and
0869200399(de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 21 - WITH
PLUMER IN MATABELELAND - Frank W. Sykes (Reprinted 1972)
THE companion to Vol. 20 in the Series, this is an account of the
supression of the rebellion which the Matabele tribe staged
against the Rhodesian settlers in 1896. More particularly, the
book concerns itself with the Matabeleland Relief Force under the
command of Col. Plumer, and with the series of peace Indabas (meetings)
initiated by Cecil Rhodes. Amply itlustrated with sketches and
photographs, this is a clear and instructive record of the major
engagements of the campaign written, refreshingly, from a trooper's
point of view. Of the several outstanding chronicles of the
Matabele Rebellion published, Sykes's book is probably of most
practical use to those who like to browse around old battlefields,
reconstructing events on the ground. It is an invaluable
companion on visits to the grand Matopo Hills near Bulawayo with
Sykes as guide, one is able to appreciate that there is as much
of historical interest in them as there is of beauty. Francis (Frank)
William Sykes, of the titled family of Sykes of Basildon, edited
a country newspaper in Australia before coming to Rhodesia to
serve with the M.R.F. Later, he was a prominent member of the
Southern Rhodesian Native Department. The latter part of his life
was spent in Queensland, Australia. He died in 1945.
Facs. repro 1897 edit. 296 pp. plus 24 pp. contemporary
publishers' advertisements; lavishly il/us., photos, sketches,
fold-out 3-c of map. 2-cot dust jacket, design based on Me/ton
Pdor sketch of Rhodes watching military action during 1896
Rebellion; new Publishers' Intro. /SBNs 0869200402 (standard, and
086920041 0 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 22 - ONE MAN'S
HAND - J. P P. Wallis (Reprinted 1972)
A CAREFUL biography of Sir Charles Coghlan, Southern Rhodesia's
first prirne minister (1924-1927), and the man responsible for
almost every advance in the country's political evolution during
the quarter of a century prior to Responsible Government - the
transition which he engineered. Sir Charles came to Rhodesia from
South Africa in 1900, was elected to the Legislative Council and
sat as Member for Bulawayo for 19 years. To him fell the task of
piloting the country along the road from British South Africa
Company administration to the status of self-governing Colony
within the British Commonwealth. He was considered, after Rhodes,
to be the greatest Rhodesian. (He was honoured among those who
deserved well of their country by his burial near Rhodes's grave,
on World's View in the Matopo Hills.). He was, says his
biographer, "a high-spirited Irishman who fought a brave
fight for Southern Rhodesia, the land of his adoption, and in the
end can fairly be said to have sacrificed his life that she might
enjoy constitutional independence . He did his work modestly,
unselfishly, without blaring of trumpets or assertive clamour. He,
like his countrymen, bore himself with loyalty and self-restraint
under accumulated provocations, and because they were too self-respecting
to be aggressive or truculent they could safely be disregarded
especially by unpolicied Secretaries of State amenable only to
rebellious violence or to fear of opposition in Parliament."
Facs. repro. 1950 edit 254 pp. inc. index, plus Author's
Intro.; dust jacket depicts John Tweed's bust of Cogh/an; new
Publishers' Intro. ISBNs 0869200429 (standard) and 086920043 7 (de
luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 23 - THE
ANCIENT RUINS OF RHODESIA - R. N. Hall and W. G. Neal (Reprinted
1972)
A FASCINATING survey, prepared at the turn of the century, of
Zimbabwe and numerous other mysterious ruins in Rhodesia. For the
past hundred years controversy, often acrimonious and always
lively, has surrounded the origins of the great walled structure
of Zimbabwe and the lesser, but still very impressive, edifices
of Khami, Inyanga and some 200 other sites. One school of thought
has held that the builders were exclusively Bantu and (particularly
after dating techniques had been improved) that they were
medieval; the rival school has stubbornly maintained that the
Bantu, primitive in terms of technical accomplishment, simply do
not know how to build in stone and that therefore other, more
advanced races - the Phoenicians, the Arabs, the Portuguese -
must have provided the architects if not the craftsmen. The first
archaelogist to excavate at Zimbabwe was Theodore Bent (in 1891),
whose work is recorded in The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland
reprinted as Vol. 5 in this Series. The next investigation,
conducted in 1902 at the request of Cecil Rhodes, was undertaken
by the authors of this work, Hall and Neal. This reprint is of
the rarer, second, revised and enlarged edition of their book,
and is well illustrated with maps and plates.
Facs. repro. second (7904) ediL revised and enlarged. 404 pp.
inc. Index; new Pubhshers' Intro. and Foreword. Many illus. maps
& plans; plus addenda and Appendices; dust jacket composite
design of tabled Zimbabwe Birct and chevron stone pattern on
Ruins' walls; ISBNs 0869200445 (standard) and 0869200453 (deluxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 24 - GREAT
DAYS - Frank Johnson (Reprinted 1972)
FRANK JOHNSON is remembered as the man who, at the age of 23,
contracted with Rhodes to enlist and equip the Pioneer Corps, cut
a 400-mile road through the wilderness from Palapye to Mount
Hampden, occupy Mashonaland and hand it over for civil
administration - all within nine months and for UK Pound 87,500.
The Column reached its destination, which was named Fort
Salisbury, on 12th September, 1890, bringing Rhodesia into being.
Johnson made a profit of UK Pound20000 on the venture. Johnson
left his home in Britain at 16, arriving at Cape Town with only
UK Pound 5 in his pocket. Seven years later he was one of the
most powerful personalities in the new country north of the
Limpopo. Great Days, his autobiography, is a book for all. The
serious student will delight in the nominal roll of the Pioneer
Corps, the text of the contract with Rhodes, the intimate
character sketches of Pioneers who are now legendary figures.
Some of Johnson's comments on the "greats" of the day
are refreshingly honest. But the book's strongest appeal is to
the young, for it is a story of resourcefulness, courage and
achievement by one cast in the mould of Rhodes himself and not
long out of his teens; of exploration, hunting and high adventure.
The work is illustrated with photographs taken by Ellerton Fry,
official photographer to the Pioneer Column and a true artist
with the camera.
Facs. repro. 1940 edit; new Publishers' Intro. 366 pp. inc.
Appendices and Index; illus with Ellerton Fry photos; dust jacket
in sepia from a sketch published in THE GRAPHIC of London 25.10.189a
lSBNs 0869200461 (standard) and 086920047X (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 25 - TRAVEL
AND ADVENTURE IN SOUTH-EAST AFRICA - F. C. Selous (Reprinted 1972)
FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS, most noted of southern Africa's
legendary big game hunters, arrived in "Zambesia" (later
Rhodesia) in 1872. His first eight years as a professional
elephant hunter are encountered in the wild-life classic, A
Hunter's Wanderings In Africa (1881) reproduced as Vol. 14
in the Rhodesiana Reprint Library. Travel and Adventure appeared
in 1893, and covers the subsequent 11-year period. By then he had
travelled the region widely: from the Transvaal in the south,
across the Zambesi to the Kafue in present-day Zambia, and from
the edge of the Kalahari Desert in the west to the Mocambique
coast in the east. By this time he had given up the ivory trail
in favour of collecting wild-life specimens for museums overseas.
As he explored, he mapped the territory, studied the African
tribes, observed the fauna and flora, met with other travellers,
hunters and prospectors, became involved in gripping adventures,
and pondered the political future of this "far interior of
South Africa" It is against this rich background that he has
painted his picture of pre-Pioneer Rhodesia. In the hands of a
less skilled narrator this book might have been no more than a
good work of reference, but Selous is first and foremost an
engaging story-teller.
Facs. repro. 1893 edit 503 pp. inc. Index, and new Publishers'
Intro. and Foreword; numerous illus., one map; dust jacket
features portrait of Selous by L. C. Dickinson. ISBNs 0869200488
(standard) and 0869200496 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 26 - THE
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN OLD DRIFTER - by Percy M. Clark (Reprinted
1972)
SEVENTY years ago Percy Clark took two weeks to make the trip
from Bulawayo to the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi river,
travelling tothe rallhead by construction train, then by ox-wagon
and finally by foot, with 18 porters to carry his belongings.
Settling at the Falls in 1903, he became the first white resident.
The "Old Drift", some five miles upstream of the gorge,
was in those days the "port of entry" between the
southern and northern territories of Rhodesia and comprised a few
small trading stores and about a dozen white men who came to be
called "Old Drifters". It was a lonely, fever-ridden
spot which took its toll on the settlers. Percy Clark, however,
managed to survive. Eventually, he set up a curio shop which,
during his 33 years at the Falls, became known to travellers the
world over. Clark's was an adventurous and eventful life, and
this lively record of his days on the Zambesi is full of incident.
He was one of the most colourful of the Rhodesian old-timers, a
"character" with a ready wit whose reminiscences
graphically evoke a rough and romantic era. As a professional
photographer he took pictures of Cecil Rhodes, of the coming of
the railway, the building of the Falls bridge, and of his trip up-river
by dug-out canoe to visit the Barotse Royal Family.
Facs. repro. 1936 edia 272 pp.; Plus. with good photos.,
taken by author professional photographer dust jacket depicts dug-outs
on Zambesi, author's photo; new Publishers' Intro. ISBNs
086920050X (standard) and 0869200518 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 27 - EX
AFRICA - Hans Sauer (Reprinted 1973)
A FASCINATING account of the early days in South Africa and
Rhodesia by a perceptive observer - a notable contribution to the
history of the stirring days of the pioneering of Kimberley, the
development of the Rand gold fields and of Rhodes's new domain to
the north. Hans Sauer, whom Rhodes referred to as "the
genial ruffian", became one of the principal characters in
the scramble for the Rand's new-found riches, purchased claims
for Rhodes's syndicate and, much later, recorded his impressions
of those exciting days in entertaining (and historically
instructive) fashion. His South African ventures had left him a
wealthy man, and he became wealthier still when he travelled to
Matabeleland on the heels of the troopers who occupied Bulawayo,
and invested shrewdly in land and mining. He is best remembered
in Rhodesia as one of the three white men who accompanied Rhodes
to the famous peace Indaba in the Matopo Hills during the
Matabele Rebellion of 1895. Ex Africa was published in
1937, two years before Sauer's death in the South of France. His
descriptions of rural life in the Orange Free State a century ago,
and his reminiscences of the cradle days of the Rand and the
founding of Rhodesia have seldom, if ever, been excelled. Of its
kind, Ex Africa is a classic - a gold mine of source
material.
Laos. repro. 193/edit. 335 pp. inc. Index; extensive new
Publishers Intro.; numerous i/los. fold-out map; dust jacket
features artiSt drawing of Rhodes at Matopos Indaba. ISBNs
0869200626 (standard) and 0869200534 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 28 - TO THE
VICTORIA FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI - by Eduard Mohr (Reprinted 1973)
A RARE peice of Africana, Mohr's To the Victoria Falls deals with
the pre-Pioneer scene in Zambesia (now Zimbabwe) and,
chronologically, is second in the Reprint Series to Thomas Morgan
Thomas's Eleven Years in Central South Africa (Vol. 10).
It is a classic on Victorian travel in southern Africa, and makes
a valuable contribution on the subject of the development of the
northward routes. Eduard Mohr of Bremen was the first German
explorer to visit the Victoria Falls, which he reached on 20th
June, 1870, fifteen years after their discovery by David
Livingstone. He had been prompted by Mauch's announcement of the
discovery ot gold near Hartley and, in company with the mining
engineer, Hubner, he had sailed for Durban in 1869 to investigate
Matabeleland and Mashonaland. Already a seasoned traveller (in
North and South America and the Far East), he was also a
competent botanist, entomologist and zoologist and a map-maker,
which led to his friendship with Thomas Baines. Mohr refers to
his meetings with Dames and Mauch en route to the Falls and to
his sojourn at Sir John Swinburne's mining camp at Tati. He
describes his many meetings with pre-Pioneers at Mangwe,
Inyati and elsewhere, and his relationship with the Boers and
natives in South Africa. It was a happy relationship, and he
recounts many amusing incidents.
Facs. repro. of 1876 Fnghsh edit transL N. D'Anvers; 462 pp.
Inc. Index, numerous full-page woodcut illus., 4
chromolithographs and map: dust lacket composite iflus. of
authors cinromohihograpns. ISBNs 0869200542 (standard) and
0869200550 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 29 - THE
RECOLLECTIONS OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER - by William Finaughty (Reprinted
1973)
WHEN William Finaughty, a member of an 1820 Settler family from
Grahamstown, made the first of his hunting trips to Mzilikazi's
Matabeleland in 1864, the land teemed with wild life. For the
eleven years covered by his Recollections he traded and shot for
ivory, mainly in the south west of Rhodesia and in Botswana.
Skilled in bushcraft, fit and fearless, he hunted on horseback,
using an old muzzle-loader. His book is full of incident and
encounter with contemporary hunters, missionaries, traders and
exprorers, among them Jan Vijoen, Henry Hartley, Thomas Baines,
Chapman, Francis, Sam Edwards, Leask, Phillips, Mauch, Mohr and
many others. Garnish is added to the hunting fare by his stories
of the Matabele (he met Mzilikazi and Lobengula), of the crafty
Bushmen, of veld lore. His unadorned descriptions of the harsh
realities of bush life, of the ever-present danger from marauding
lions, of fever, the lack of water and the tsetse fly impress as
well as inform and entartain. Finaughty's Recollections
were first recorded by R. N. Hall in instalments in The
Rhodesian Journal and in 1916 they were published in book
form by an American sportsman, G. L. Harrison, in an edition of
only 250 copies. One instalment was missing. In 1957 the work was
reprinted, including the missing chapter. It has now been re-set
with an additional Foreword and annotations by Edward C. Tabler.
Facs. repro. 7916 edit. plus additional sketch map, illus.
and new Foreword and Notes byE U Tablet; 244 pp. inc. Index; dust
jacket design of Tusker by Jeff Huntly. ISBNs 0869200569 (standard)
and 086920057/ (do luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 30 - THE
JAMESON RAID - by Hugh Marshall Hole (Reprinted 1973)
A GRAPHIC and authorative account of the abortive raid on Paul
Kruger's Transvaal Republic carried out by Dr. Leander Starr
Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New
Year weekend of 1895-96. The raid had profound and far-reaching
repercussions in both Britain and southern Africa: it toppled
Cecil Rhodes from his seat of power; it embittered relations
between British and Dutch in all four States of South Africa and
was a contributory cause of the Anglo-Boer War; it was a factor
in the outbreak of the Matabele Rebellion in Rhodesia, and it
even had political repercussions in the countries north of the
Limpopo some fifty years later. The Raid aroused intense partisan
feelings on both sides of the language barrier and much was
written on the subject at the time and in subsequent years. The
great merit of Hugh Marshall Hole's book, however, is that it is
by a man who knew Jameson personally, had worked with him in the
intimate capacity of private secretary and who was well aware of
Jameson's weaknesses as well as his strengths. And Hole wrote the
book, not in the heat of post-Raid controversy, but more than
thirty years later, when he was able to view events
dispassionately. Hugh Marshall Hole was an efficient civil
servant, a man of wide interests and considerable culture. He had
a keen and observant mind and the gift of lucid expression.
Facs. repro. 1930 edit; new Publishers' Intro.; numerous il/us.
inc. some additional to org. edition; fold-out map; 306 pp. inc.
Index; dust jacket "Charge of the Three Hundred'; pic. from
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS of Feb. 1896. ISBNs 0869200585 (standard)
and 0869200593 (ife luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 31 - SOME
AFRICAN MILESTONES - H. F. Varian (Reprinted 1973)
A STORY of railway development in southern and east Africa,
notable for its fluency, humour and human interest. Rhodes's
visionary Cape-to-Cairo scheme had given birth to a sophisticated
network of railway lines linking Botswana, Rhodesia, Zambia and
the Congo with the southern and eastern seaports of the continent
by the early years of this century. The contribution made to the
development of these countries by those who planned, built and
worked the communications system can never be over-estimated;
indeed, the railways was the major civilizing factor in Africa. H.
F. Varian was one such pioneer he spent some 50 years on projects
in Mocambique, Rhodesia, Angola and in East Africa. African
Milestones is a personal description of the day-to-day
business of railway construction in the early and middle years.
It is an historical document which touches on many branches of
technology and science (including zoology); h is also a
thoroughly good story. its characters range from Royalty to
secret agents. Featured are such greats as Rhodes, Machado,
Lawley, Pauling, Metcalfe and Selous. Among the not-so-great are
such salty personalities as O'Rory of the Hills, Johnie the
Frenchman, Larson the Swede, Bloody Bill Upscher, African queens,
witchdoctors and snake charmers. This is a first class tale of
adventure and achievement, told with modesty and a sense of fun.
Facs. repro. 1953 edit.; 272 pp. inc. Index; many interesting
illus.; end papers comprise map of railway network; new
Publishers' Intro.; dust jacket design by J Meintjies. ISBNs
086920060 7 (standard) and 086920061 5 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 32 - HOW WE
MADE RHODESIA - Major A. G. Leonard (Reprinted 1973)
CULLED from the author's diaries and letters,
written while he was stationed at Fort Macloutsie and Fort Tuli,
near the southern borders of what is now Rhodesia, this important
work is full of absorbing and valuable information about Cecil
Rhodes's Pioneer Column and southern African politics in the 1890s.
Arthur Glyn Leonard, a professional soldier, came into contact
with everyone who passed through his military camps, and his book
is a veritable Who's Who of those associated with the founding of
Rhodesia. Sir Henry Loch, then the High Commissioner in South
Africa, Rhodes himself, Dr. Jameson Alfred Beit, Rutherfoord
Harris, Lord Randolph Churchill, Theodore Bent, Mother Patrick,
Canon Balfour, Father Prestage, Frank Johnson, Johan Colenbrander,
Pennefather, Hans Sauer, Bishop KnightBruce and, Archibald
Colquhoun are a few of the many personalities introduced. Leonard's
disgressions are numerous, ranging from a discussion on "Home
Rule" to an essay on 'the duty of mankind to animals"
He expresses social, political and philosophical views, assesses
Rhodes and Jameson (the "fiery spirit of unbounded ambition
inspires them"); pays tribute to the ordinary soldiers and
settlers who, literally, "made Rhodesia", and
libellously criticises the British South Africa Company.
Facs. repro. 1896 edit; new Publishers' Intro., Foreword, and
Olus. 364 pp. inc. Index; end papers feature map of route taken
by BSAP Pioneer Forces; well dIus.; dust jacket design by Rose
Martin. ISBNs 0869200623 (standard) and 086920063 1 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 33 - THROUGH
MATABELELAND: TEN MONTHS IN A WAGGON - CDI. J. G. Wood (Reprinted
1974)
THE legendary gold deposits of Zambesia, north of
the Limpopo river, attracted hordes of concession hunters in the
years prior to the arrival in force of the white man in 1890.
Prospectors had come in a steady stream to the court of the
Matabele King Lobengula until, in 1888, Rhodes, through the
controversial Rudd Concession, obtained the complete and
exclusive rights to all minerals in the Matabele Kingdom. This
intriguing work is an account of the Wood-Chapman-Francis
syndicate of concession hunters, from Grahamstown, who visited
Matabeleland in 1887 the time of the most intensive competition
for the supposed gold riches of the area. The leader and author
of this book, Joseph Ga rbett Wood, was a prominent personality
in the Eastern Province of the South African Cape and the
descendant of an 1820 Settler. After lengthy negotiations with
Lobengula (Wood's account of these parts the curtain to reveal a
fascinating scene one glimpses the Royal Kraal, and learns
something of the customs and mode of living of the Matabele), the
syndicate was granted a concession. This ran counter to the
Imperial interests, and those of Rhodes's powerful group, and
there followed a great deal of intrigue and infighting.
Facs. repro. 1893 edit.; additional portraits; new Foreword
by F. C. Tabler; 198 pp. Inc. Appendices, Victorian adverts, new
Publishers' Intro.; dust jacket features Indaba with Lobengula in
Royal Kraai ISBNs 0869200798 (standard) and 086920080 1 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 34 -
KINGSLEY FAIRBRIDGE: HIS LIFE AND VERSE - (Reprinted 1974)
THIS book combines the life story and the poetry
of one of the most admired personalities of early Rhodesia.
Kingsley Fairbridge was a visionary whose idealism was supported
by action and a remarkable resourcefulness. Born at Grahamstown
in 1885, he became a pioneer when, at the age of eleven, his
family moved to Umtali in the eastern highlands of Rhodesia. His
formal schooling unfinished, the wilds became his classroom.
While wandering "on the outskirts of the Empire" he had
his "splendid vision" of peopling the vast empty spaces
with child immigrants. Winning a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, he
studied forestry, wrote verse, was awarded his "blue"
for boxing - and founded The Child Emigration Society, later to
become the Fairbridge Society. His scheme was considered
impracticable for Rhodesia, but it took root in Australia, where
he did impressive work in giving many hundreds of underprivileged
children from the overcrowded cities of Britain new opportunities
in life. This edition, published on the 50th anniversary of
Fairbridge's death, carries an informative Publishers'
Introduction (in which there is new material on the Fairbridge
family history), a Foreword by Rhodesian poet Noel Brettell, and
an Epilogue covering the years in Australia, as well as
Fairbridge's classic Autobiography and his rare Veld
Verse.
Reprint of 1927 edit. of autobiog. inc. hitherto unpublished
additional text and illus. 246 pp.: Autobiog; 118 pp.: Veld Verse;
also selections from 1909 and 1928 edits. of Fairbridge's VELD
VERSE poem by Noel Brettell and precis of Mrs Ruby Fairbridge's
book PINJARRA; extensive new Publishers' Intro.; new Foreword;
Epilogue; dust jacket features portrait of Fairbridge. lSBNs
0869201077 (standard) and 0869201069 (deluxe).
Top | Previous
Vol. | Next Vol.
Volume 35 - THREE
YEARS IN SAVAGE AFRICA - Lionel Decle (Reprinted 1974)
LIONEL DECLE mountaineer, explorer and amateur
scientist was commissioned by the French Government in 1890 to
study and report on the ethnology and anthropology of southern
and east Africa, and his travels in these regions are the subject
of this informative and entertaining book. Three Years in
Savage Africa is a panoramic canvas of travelogue and
scientific observation. The author's 7 000-mile odyssey look him,
by devious routes, from Cape Town toMombasa, and throughout the
journey he managed to sustain a remarkably fresh curiosity, a
sense of high adventure and a capacity for frank appraisal (too
frank, some of his contemporary critics thought). The end result
is an eminently readable book, full of perceptive comment on the
life styles and customs of the indigenous peoples, pen-portraits
of the early white settlements, and tales of the hardship,
sickness and danger which were inseparable from cross-continent
travel in the 1890s. Decle's observations and conclusions,
written without the benefit of hindsight, are placed in
perspective by Dr Murray Steele in his scholarly Foreword to the
reprint edition.
Facs. repro. 1900 edit.; new Publishers' Intro. and new
Foreword by Dr Murray Steele.; 594 pp. mci Index and charts;
numerous il/us.; coloured maps; orig. Foreword by H. M. Stanley;
dust jacket U/us. taken from J. Ewing Ritchie's PICTORIAL EDITION
OF THE LIFE AND DISCOVERIES OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE ISBNs 0869201093
(standard) and 086920 1107 (de luxe).
Top | Previous
Vol.
Volume 36 - WITH
RHODES IN MASHONALAND - D. C. de Waal (Reprinted 1974)
IN 1890, and again in 1891, David Christiaan de
Waal accompanied Cecil Rhodes to the new territory of Mashonaland
(now part of Rhodesia) and then wrote of his travels in a series
of articles which appeared in the Cape magazine, Het Zuid-Afrikaansche
Tijdschrift. These were later expanded, translated from the
original Dutch by Jan H. Hofmeyr de Waal and republished, in 1896,
in book form. The articles have lost nothing, and have perhaps
even gained, in the translation, Here is the real Mr Rhodes - off-duty,
thoroughly enjoying the informality of veld life in the company
of good friends. Here, too, is a fascinating insight into Rhodes's
relationship with some of the personalities who, and the events
which, characterised the southern African scene in the 1890s. De
Waal was a close friend and fervent admirer of Rhodes - so much
so that he was reluctant to break with Rhodes even during the
acrimonious controversy which followed upon the Jameson Raid. His
loyalty led to his estrangement with the Afrikaner Bond, of which
he was a leading member. A senior Cape politician, de Waal's
support was important to Rhodes when, as Cape Prime Minister, he
was involved in the occupation and development of Mashonaland.
Facs. repro. of translation by J. H. Hofmeyr de Waal 1896
edit in two parts; new Publishers' Intro; new Foreword by J H.
Mienie; additional illus. end new Index. 356 pp. ISBNs 0869201166
(standard) and 0869201174 (de luxe).
| Previous Book | Next Book | [ Home | Catalogues | News | The Company | Business Card ] |

© Copyright 1967-2006 - Books of Rhodesia, Books of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, Books of Zimbabwe<br>Images and logos on this site may not be used or re-produced in any form without written permission from the respective owners.