Steedman, Andrew (c.1800 - c.1879)

Wanderings and Adventures in the Interior of Southern Africa [2 volumes complete]

London: Longman & Co., 1835. First Edition, First Printing. A Foundational Early Travel Narrative of Southern Africa — Ethnography, Natural History, and Frontier Conflict

One of the most substantial pre-colonial South African travel accounts, Steedman’s Wanderings and Adventures documents ten years of exploration across the Cape Colony and Kaffraria during a period of major political and cultural transformation.

Recased in original publisher’s cloth with renewed endpapers. Bindings tight and square; text clean with light, even toning. Moderate handling wear; foxing at plate margins. Two 8vo volumes (9 inches tall): xii, 330; v, 358 pages. Illustrated with twelve steel engravings, a folding map at the end of Volume I, two engraved title pages, and two tissue-guarded frontispieces. First Edition, First Printing.

The work is prized for its ethnographic observations of Xhosa, Khoikhoi, and frontier communities; early documentation of frontier wars; detailed natural history specimens (including species later named for Steedman); and its incorporation of A. G. Bain’s journal from Dr. Andrew Smith’s interior expedition. With engravings, map, and the celebrated narrative of the 1782 Grosvenor wreck, the set forms a rich documentary archive of early South African life, travel, and science.

The extensive appendices include A. G. Bain’s letter and journal describing travels with Dr. (later Sir) Andrew Smith to Philippolis; accounts of the Grosvenor shipwreck and its survivors; and detailed commentary on the Kat River Settlement, Kaffrarian conflicts, and frontier migrations. A solid and highly desirable First Edition set with strong research and collector value.

References: Mendelssohn I, 654; Mendelssohn II, 431–432; Royal Geographical Society (1935), Vol. V, p. 322.

Subjects: African Exploration; South African Frontier; Ethnography; Kaffraria; Natural History; Maritime Disaster History

Item #21329

Price: $695.00