Le Cordeur Basil a Editor (1 results)

The Graham's Town Series Number 8. 8vo; original dark brown cloth, with gilt device to upper cover, and spine lettered in gilt; pictorial dustwrapper; tinted top edge; pp. xxiv + 214 (including index); black-and-white illustrations. Dustwrapper slightly foxed, with trace of insect attention; small, defunct wormhole to bottom corner of lower pastedown and upper joint; some foxing to endpapers and edges, occasional fox spot elsewhere. Good condition. "Charles Lennox Stretch has always been a controversial historical personality. In this journal he tells of his experiences in the 1835 frontier war, in which many of his convictions about political and social issues at the Cape first began to crystallize. . Most of the text of his journal was recorded in the field, and vividly depicts the campaigns in the Amathole, as well as the peace negotiations with Maqoma and Tyhali, in which he took part. The journal presents a refreshingly different version of the frontier situation from the traditional accounts by officials, soldiers and colonists--although, ironically, Stretch had himself experienced frontier life in each of these capacities. Unlike most of the Settlers and their sympathizers, Stretch did not regard frontier wars as being due simply to unprovoked aggression by primitive savages; he believed, rather, that they were prompted by the 'reprisals' system and by the voracious appetite of the whites for the land of the Xhosa.". …