A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, including Genealogical Tables of Kafir Chiefs and Various Tribal Census Returns

MACLEAN, Colonel John

Published by Wesleyan Mission Press (Printed for the Government of British Kaffraria), Mount Coke, 1858

About this Item

Mount Coke, Wesleyan Mission Press (Printed for the Government of British Kaffraria), 1858. Octavo, viii (last blank), 168 pages plus 3 folding tables. Original cloth with the printed paper title-label on the spine, all edges speckled blue; cloth lightly marked, with slight loss near the head of the spine and to the title-label; cloth on the joints split in a few small spots; top edge a little marked; a very good copy. Both the front flyleaf and the title page carry the ownership signature of Sir Malcolm MacGregor, fourth Baronet MacGregor and a British naval commander stationed in New Zealand. The inscription is dated 19 December 1861 ('Auckland, New Zealand' added in the first instance) and indicates that he received this volume from Sir George Grey, the new Governor of the colony, recently arrived from South Africa. Sir George Grey (1812-1898), explorer, governor and politician: in June 1854 he 'was appointed governor of Cape Colony and high commissioner of South Africa. He arrived in Cape Town obsessed with a visionary native policy that would end all Kaffir wars, bring the tribes between Cape Colony and Natal under control, penetrate their lands with broad settlements of white immigrants capable of defending themselves, and finally unite all South Africa in a self-sufficing, self-governing federation. In attempting to crowd these idealistic projects into a five-year term, he alienated his Legislative Council and the colonists and Kaffirs as well as the War Office, the Treasury and the Colonial Office. Grey left Cape Town in August 1861 and in October was sworn in as governor of New Zealand for the second time' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). The book has two main contributors, and a miscellany of interesting smaller sections. The first section comprises 'Rev. H.H. Dugmore's Papers, as published in the "Christian Watchman" during 1846 and 1847' (pages 1-54). Almost as much space is given over to 'Mr Warner's Notes, dated Tambookie Residency, December 1st, 1856' (pages 57-109, with the last 35 pages devoted to 'Laws and Customs connected with their System of Superstition'). Seller Inventory # 110699

Bibliographic Details

Title: A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, ...

Publisher: Wesleyan Mission Press (Printed for the Government of British Kaffraria), Mount Coke

Publication Date: 1858

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Edition: First Edition.