Romance of Empire. SOUTH AFRICA. By Ian D Colvin

Early 1900's. Hard cover, 328 pages. Very good condition.

With 12 reproductions in colour of original drawings by GS Smithard & JS Skelton.

Under 1kg.

Part of the Romance of Empire series, this dashing sweep of South African colonial history tells the story of the tip of Africa from the first European sighting in the 1400s right through to the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1902. A marvelously politically incorrect book, this work draws upon original colonial records and accounts to provide now-hidden insights into the storyline of the longest lasting—and most influential—of European settlements in Africa. Read the thrilling accounts of the early Portuguese explorations, the arrival of the first Dutch colonists, the growth of the Cape Colony, the advent of slavery and its repercussions, the British occupation of the Cape, the endless frontier “Kaffir Wars”, the Great Trek, the war with the Zulus, and finally the awful clash between Boer and Brit. An enthralling story, told in a forthright, frank but utterly engrossing style: “It is a little hard to realise that the Portuguese were exploring East Africa when the English were still fighting the Wars of the Roses, and that an army was being led three or four hundred miles up the Zambesi when Shakespeare was little more than a baby. It was the fate of the Portuguese to spend their blood and treasure looking for gold among the fever-stricken jungles and mangrove swamps of South-east Africa. The tales of death and massacre, of battles with cannibals and wild beasts to be found in the old Portuguese records would take a volume to themselves.”