N. J. MERRIMAN The Kafir, The Hottentot and the Frontier Farmer. London: George Bell, 1853. First

London: George Bell, 1853. First edition, pp. iv, 5-200 plus 16pp. publisher's catalogue at the end, chromolithographic frontispiece with tissue guard, folding map - The Bishop of Cape Town’s Visitation 1850 indicated in red, 2 partly hand coloured lithographic plates, 3 engraved plates, original blind embossed cloth with gilt titling, previous owner’s signature on front free endpaper date 1854, plus one more undated signature, previous bookseller price in pencil on the verso of same page, contents crisp, occasional pencil mark, some notes in ink on the last free endpaper, a very good copy.

'The journal extends over the years 1850-1-2, in the course of which the Archdeacon visited the principal towns, villages, and missionary settlements of the Cape Colony, Kaffraria, Natal, and the Orange River Sovereignty, and there is some information respecting the condition of the English and Dutch farmers, at this period, with notes on the Kaffir War. The writer appears to have been hospitably treated by the Boers, and he remarks that he found them "much kinder to strangers than the English people" observing, "I have learnt also to modify my ideas of Dutch harshness towards the coloured people who serve them there is much kindness exercised towards them, in a way that English masters and mistresses seem incapable of... There is less of awful distance kept between the parties. The Dutchman acts peremptorily, but speaks kindly and less haughtily to the natives than an English gentleman is used to do to his inferiors” In referring to the trial of a Kaffir for the murder of a native woman, who, he stated, had bewitched him, the Archdeacon dilates on the folly of missionaries, and other "rulers and governors," in impressing on the natives that there was "no such thing as witchcraft," while at the same time they placed in their hands the Kaffir translation of the Bible, with all its references to witches and witchcraft.' (Mendelssohn (Sydney) South African Bibliography, volume 2, pp2-3).