A Visit to Lobengula in 1889 by Vaughan-Williams, H

(Pietermaritzburg: Shuter and Shooter, 1947). 4to; original crimson cloth, lettered in gilt on spine; pictorial dustwrapper; pp. viii + 192; line drawings; map. Dustwrapper tanned, foxed and slightly creased; earlier owner's bookplate to front free endpaper; edges foxed, occasional fox spot elsewhere; slight bump to bottom fore-corner of upper board. Very good condition. Lovely illustrations. (Hosken, p. 218) "An adventurous and closely observant youth of nineteen, he in 1889 intermitted his medical studies in Edinburgh to join a party in search of a prospecting grant from Lobengula. He came out at a critical time. The Rudd Concession had led to the establishment of the B.S.A. Company under Royal Charter. Then came rumours of 'Rhodes's Impi', the Pioneers with their police escort. Most of the indunas and of the Matabele people, especially the young warriors, saw in this movement the threat of annihilation to their national independence. Amid this seething fear and discontent, the King had to move most circumspectly. Not unwishful to help the white men, he dared not openly run counter to the temper of his subjects. How he tried to compromise and how dangerously white men then lived about the King's kraal the ensuing narrative reveals in clear and crisp detail, and no Rhodesian with right pride in his country can afford to neglect this chance to study a thrilling situation through the testimony of an eye-witness." .