Hawk's Eye

Author's signed presentation inscription to title page. 4to; original fawn boards; pictorial dustwrapper; endpaper map; pp. 178, incl. index; plates; map; genealogy. Dustwrapper very slightly foxed, with a few closed, short edge-tears to reverse; a little foxing to edges and endpapers. Good condition. 'In "Hawk's Eye", Dorothy Rivett-Carnac has told the long-awaited life story of Henry, eldest son of Lord Charles Somerset, whose significant contribution to the evolution of South Africa has been obscured both by his illustrious father and by the dynamic characters who at the same time bestrode the historic scene. Sir Harry Smith, Dr. John Philip, Andries Stockeström, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, the chiefs Gaika, Sandile of the withered leg, the wily Macomo, Hintsa, even the Xhosa woman diplomat Sutu, were all Henry Somerset's colleagues and co-players in the drama of the eastern frontier. His knowledge of the terrain which became the cockpit of Southern Africa, and of its peoples - the Boers (whose language he spoke) and the Britons of 1820 Settler origin, the Hottentots and Fingos, the Xhosas and Fetcani, - was unrivalled. For thirty years, he rode unceasingly about the border, earning by his vigilance and ubiquitousness the name of Hawk's Eye . '.…