AN IRREGULAR CORPS IN MATABELELAND

Original red cloth with titles in gilt and gilt spear design on cover. Corners bumped, spine darkened, cloth stained. Textblock square, bindng tight. 249 pages including appendices. Eight foldout maps, plus folding map of Matabeleland in rear pocket. This particular map shows faint cracking at seams, and a small red stain, but is fully intact. Note:On the List of Maps, Plans, &.c." on pp. vii, there appears an error in calling for a mapl depicting the route from Macloutsi to Mangwe. The folding map actually depicts the route from Macloutsi, beyond Mangwe, to Bulawayo. Binding cracked but remains strong. Text and maps are clean, some age toning to margins. Military account of the fighting between the British South Africa Company and the native population during the Second Matabela War (aka The Matabela Rebellion). Colonel R.S. Baden-Powell, later founder of the world wide Scouting movement, also participated in putting down the rebellion. Note: This is the extremely scarce original printing. Plumer, Major in the York and Lancaster Regiment, commanded the Matabeleland Relief Force. "The news that was flashed down from Bulawayo at the latter partof March, 1896, that the Matabelehad. risen in revolt against the authority of the British South Africa Company, and had expressed their determination to exterminate all the white settlers in the country, caused the utmost consternation, not only throughout South Africa, but in England; and, indeed, it was hardly possible to exaggerate the gravity of the situation. The picture of the small population in that country, among whom were many women and children, exposed to the fanatical fury of a savage race, famed for their ferocities and cruelties.was horrible to contemplate. ".There were probably many causes for the rising. In the first place, though Bulawayo had been taken and Lobungula the. king driven from the country in 1893, the Matabelehad not really been conquered; many of the tribes had never fought at all, and though surprised into submission by the white man's sudden occupation of their capital and the flight of their chief, they still believed themselves cpaable of holding their own if opportunity should arise. The injudicious manner in which the authorities exacted the tribute of cattle fixed as a war indemnity, making as they did periodcal demands for a certain number of head from each district, was a perpetual source of irritation among the Matabele, and led to the belief that the real intention of the company was to gradually deprive them of all the capital and power which the possession of cattle meant.".…