Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa. 2 Vols – Thompson, George

Bookplate of M.Z. Brown to the pastedown and of G Carleton Jones to the fep of each volume. Guy Carleton Jones, after whom the South African mining town, Carletonville was named was instrumental in early discoveries on the Gold reef at the Witwatersrand. Second edition, i.e: the 8vo edition which was published simultaneously with the first edition in one volume 4to. Folding plan of Graaff Reinet to volume 1, with 13 full page aquatint illustrations, a frontis and other vignettes in text. Volume 2 with a folding frontis of Table Mountain from the Parade, a folding plan of Cape Town, a folding map to the rear and seven full page aquatint illustration. Some minor foxing to a few plates and repaired short tears to the folding plates. Complete. This valuable work was written by a Cape Town merchant who resided in South Africa for many years, and who travelled throughout the greater pat of the Cape Colony and a considerable part of Bechuanaland, “partly from motives of business, partly from the impulse of curiosity.’ In 1821, Mr. Thompson made a six weeks’ excursion to Albany ” to examine into the prospects of the British emigrants…and to ascertain what branches of trade might be most successfully extend-ed in that direction,” and on this occasion he visited Port Elizabeth (” then a hamlet of only three or four houses “), Uitenhage, Graham’s Town, Bathurst, George, and many other districts and settlements, and his clear, unbiassed, and shrewd comments throw considerable light on the state of affairs in South Africa at this period. In 1823 and I824 he proceeded to the Orange River and Bechuanaland,and his account of these regions is recognised as the most important description of this part of the continent published in the early part of the nineteenth, century. The third division of the work comprises a review of the condition “of the Dutch and British inhabitants, of the agricultural, commercial, and financial cir-cumstances of the country and of its adaptation for further colonisation.” The author observes that Mr. Barrow’s account of the Cape Dutch Boers was “a powerful but somewhat overdrawn picture – the features that he portrayed were real; – but the delineation was, nevertheless, an unfair representation of the colonists, because the traveller had only seen them underan unfavourable aspect…Dr. Lichtenstein, on the other hand, appears to have been led by political opposition and other causes to contradict Mr. Barrow’s account, on many occasions with-out just cause…. The truth seems to lie between these conflicting accounts…That the back-country Boers of former times were many of them as savage, indolent, and unprincipled as Mr. Barrow has described, cannot be questioned…to this day, some of them are in no respect improved.But even the Vee-Boers in general have many good and pleasing qualities… the very rudest class of the Cape Boers seem to be in many respects superior to the half-savage back set-tlers in almost every quarter of the Spanish or Anglo-American colonies.” The work contains a number of excellent engravings, some of which were contributed by the natu-ralist Wehdemann, and others by Mr. De Meillon and Dr. Heurtley: there are plans of Cape Town and Graaff-Reinet, a map of South Africa showing the author’s route and an Appendix containing reproductions of valuable articles from the South African Journal and other sources. [Mendels-sohn South African Bibliography, vol 2, 493-4]. 2nd Edition. Same year as the first. Condition: Very good. Binding: Hardcover. Half leather bindings over marbled boards. Bindings lightly worn with corners bumped.

Publisher: Henry Colburn
Date Published: 1827
Publication Place: London

Condition: Very good.
Binding: Hardcover. Half leather bindings over marbled boards. Bindings lightly worn with corners bumped.