WANDERINGS AND ADVENTURES IN THE INTERIOR OF SOUTHERN AFRICA.

London: Longman & Co., 1835. 2 volumes. First Edition. Illustrated with early lithographs and wood engravings, including an engraved frontispiece to each volume, engraved vignette title-page to each volume and ten other engraved plates, and with a fine large folding map at the end of Vol. I, complete as called for. 8vo, in the very rare publisher's original ribbed dark olive cloth, the spines gilt lettered within an ornate gilt frame. x, 330; v, 358 pp. An unusually bright set of this important work, the bindings showing only some rubbing at the bottom of the spine panels caused by shelving, the upper hinge on volume two is rather weak, internally fine with just some of the typical browning to the edges of the plates as is usual to engravings of the period, the text-block very clean and fresh. FIRST EDITION OF A TRULY IMPORTANT BOOK, SELDOM SEEN AT ALL, VERY RARE IN ORIGINAL CLOTH AND IN THIS CONDITION. The account of the author’s travels during his ten years of residence in the Cape. “During his expeditions, Mr. Steedman traversed a great part of the Cape Colony and Kaffaria, penetrating the county up to Griqualand West. He was an industrious and able collector and naturalist, and the volumes contain much valuable information respecting the fauna of the country...The work gives many details respecting early travels in South Africa, with sketches of native races, and their history and wars, the pioneer colonists of Natal &c. “
Andrew Steedman came to the Cape Colony from England as an independent 1820 Settler, arriving on the last of the settler ships, the Duke of Marlborough. He subsequently settled in Cape Town and ran a general fitting-out warehouse. The business must have been successful, for it enabled him to undertake three major journeys into the interior in search of natural history specimens.
Steedman's first journey took him to Port Elizabeth by sea and from there to Grahamstown, where he obtained permission from the military to travel beyond the Keiskamma River (into the Ciskei). Travelling on horseback he visited Fort Wiltshire (some 20 km south of present Alice), visited various local chiefs down to Wesleyville (some 30 km south of present King William's Town), and returned to Port Elizabeth by more or less the same route.
On 18 February 1829 Steedman married Kate P. Rose in Cape Town and remained there for over a year before he set out on his second journey in September 1830. By ox-waggon he travelled to the Great Karoo via the Hex River Valley, on to Beaufort West and Graaff Reinet, and from there via the Kompasberg to Colesberg. After nearly drowning in an attempt to cross the swollen Orange River he returned to Colesberg where he attended the laying of the foundation stone of the Dutch Reformed Church. From Colesberg he proceeded to Cradock and via Glen Lynden (on the Baviaans River east of Somerset East) to Grahamstown. After spending some time there he once again visited the Ciskei, reaching Tyume mission station and re-visiting Fort Wiltshire, where he obtained much information about the local people and their customs from assistant staff-surgeon Nathaniel Morgan. From Grahamstown he returned to Cape Town overland by the established route.
Steedman set out on his third journey in September of 1831 with the intention of reaching Lattakoo (now Dithakong, some 60km north-east of Kuruman), chief town of the Tlhaping, the southernmost Tswana. He sent his ox-waggon on its way and first accompanied a friend to Beaufort West on horseback. From there he travelled to the mission station at Griquatown. Illness prevented him from continuing on to Lattakoo and after recovering he returned to Cape Town in November 1831.
During his travels Steedman collected over 300 animals, including some that had not yet been described, as well as ethnographic specimens. In 1833 he returned to England and arranged an exhibition of his animals in the Colosseum, Regent's Park, London.

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