Three Years With Lobengula and Experiences in South Africa by Cooper-Chadwick, J

(Bulawayo: Books of Rhodesia, 1975) 0869201190. Ex-library copy. Rhodesiana Reprint Library - Silver Series, Volume One. Facsimile reproduction of the 1894 edition, with new Foreword and illustrations. 8vo; pictorial boards after the Cassell edition; pictorial dustwrapper, in vinyl protector; pp. (xvi) 160 + original publisher's catalogue; folding map; plates; adverts., as in original edition. Dustwrapper adhering to rear pastedown, a little edgeworn, and sunned on spine panel, with code label at tail; boards shelf-rubbed; front free endpaper removed, its hinge pasted to flyleaf, which has earlier owner's bookplate; library stamps, codes, etc. to copyright page and rear free endpaper; trace of foxing to edges. Good reading copy. "[The] major portion of Three Years with Lobengula is taken up with descriptions of the Ndebele, their military and social organisation, their customs and the character of their king ('his features were coarse, and exhibited great cunning and cruelty ...' but he was 'by far the most intelligent in the nation'), their feasts and ceremonies, and of the competitive manoeuvrings of the rival white supplicants. Cooper-Chadwick's is one of the best accounts of the tensions at Bulawayo and Umvutchwa in the winter of 1890 - tensions which could have erupted in open warfare when, in mid-year, the Pioneer Column entered Mashonaland." .