[SOUTH AFRICA] KAY, Stephen

Travels and Researches in Caffraria: Describing the Character, Customs, and Moral Condition of the Tribes Inhabiting That Portion of Southern Africa...

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1834. First American Edition. First printing. 12mo (20cm). Glazed pale red cloth, titled on printed paper spine label; 428,[4]pp; 4pp publisher's ads at rear; folding map and four plates. Bookseller's ticket of Moore & Payne to front pastedown. Ownership inscriptions of Wm. M. Holland, 1836, and W. Barratt, 1849, to f.f.e.p. Straight and sound, minor stains to cloth, light fading to spine, minor foxing throughout, but generally Very Good.

Narrative of travels in the Eastern Cape of South Africa by a Methodist missionary. Theal acknowledged that the book was informative about the "Bantu tribes and the Wesleyan missions," but criticized it for calling out the cruelties of colonization (p.158). Mendelssohn, meanwhile, called Theal's criticisms "drastic," and the work itself "interesting and instructive...especially with regard to the natural and political history of the country, and its topography and ethnology" (p.805). The term for this region used in the work's title was derived from a racial slur and is no longer in use. THEAL p.158. MENDELSSOHN I p.805.

Price: $300.00

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