Title: Life with the Zulus of Natal
Publisher: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans
Publication Date: 1855
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Near Fine
Edition: 1st
The cleric George Holditch Mason was an early African missionary, publishing several books on South Africa. xii, 232 pages. Mendelssohn I, 992. Bound together with Narrative of the Niger, Tshadda and Binue Exploration: including a Report on the Malaria and Fevers of Western Africa, by Hutchinson, T. J. Hutchinson. xi, 267 pages, complete with folding map, published by the same publishers in the same year, 1855. Bound in original green embosssed cloth, spine with gilt decoration at head and foot and with gilt lettering. These two books were presented as the first volume of the Africa section of The Traveller's Library, being volume 9 of 25. These two works used the original printed sheets from their respective first editions, to which they are identical. Thomas Joseph Hutchinson (1820 85) was an Anglo-Irish explorer, born at Stonyford County Kilkenny Ireland. He studied medicine. In 1851, Hutchinson was appointed senior surgeon on board the Pleiad, for the expedition to the rivers Niger, Tshadda and Binue up to 1855, led by John Beecroft. In this capacity, Hutchinson conducted research on the use of quinine as a preventative measure against the effects of malaria. He insisted that, in small doses, quinine had a favourable effect in preventing fever. In the late 1850s, Bailey & Wills of Horsecley Fields produced 'Dr. Hutchinson's Quinine Wine', marketing it to ship owners and crews. After two years as English Consul at the Bight of Biafra and Fernando Po, he became governor of the latter place (1857). He died a wealthy man, leaving £1,145-16s-5d to his wife and adopted daughter. These two 165 year-old books on Africa are in remarkably fine condition.