John Campbell

Undertaken at the Request of the Missionary Society

Black, Parry, & Co., and T. Hamilton, London, 1815

John Campbell was a Scottish missionary and traveler, who, after the death of John Theodosius van der Kemp, was sent to South Africa by the London Missionary Society to inspect mission stations. On Campbell's journey to the Cape, he became significant in the opposition of the slave trade, and helped found the Society for the Education of Africans. This book is the record of his first journey to South Africa in which Campbell toured the country, meeting the natives and the Boer settlers. Campbell gives an account of bushmen's country, King Mateebe in Lattakoo, Dr. Cowan's massacre, numerous undiscovered topographical regions. The book includes an appendix of prayers in native languages, a short glossary, a list of population and land holdings of the tribes, a list a questions asked at every mission, and a new list of regulations created during his trip. He returned to England in 1814 with his report and recommendations for the colony together with maps of the outposts. Howgego II, pp. 105-6. Mendelssohn I, p. 254 

 "Few Englishmen at that time had performed such a feat, and on his return his appearances on missionary platforms in London and throughout the country were received with enthusiasm." (DNB).

"This book contains some information on general subjects, as well as a complete account of the missions of the London society. But the author's simplicity and credulity were so great that little reliance can be placed on anything that he describes which did not come under his own eyes. It is difficult to make out his Dutch, Korana and Setshuana proper names, as his ear was not good at catching sounds. There is a kindly tone throughout . which compensates for many defects." [Theal's Catalogue of Books and Pamphlets relating to Africa]. 

With frontispiece, 9 plates, folding map

Being a Narrative of a Second Journey in the Interior of that Country

Francis Westley, London, 1822 

First edition, in two volumes (pp. xii, 322; 384). Octavo (23 cm) in fine bespoke binding - polished red calf, gilt titles and decorations, top page edges gilt, marbled endpapers, gauffred edges (in the style if not by the hand of Bayntun- Riviere). Complete with twelve aquatints (two frontispieces) by Clark from drawings by Campbell and hand-coloured folding map of South Africa.

This two volume set is the record of the second journey of a tour of inspection that the London Missionary Society asked the Rev. John Campbell to make of its South African missions, the first journey having been in 1815. The tour consisted of both journeys. The first was undertaken in the company of Rev. Robert Moffat and his wife to Caffraria and the Cape Colony in 1818-19, and the second was in 1821, deep into the interior to settlements such as Lattakoo, Mashow, Griqua Town and Kurreechane. Campbell had not planned to venture so far into the interior but upon his reunion with King Mateebe of Lattakoo (with whom he had had good relations on his last visit) he seized the invitation the king offered for a friendly reception by King Kossie of Mashow further north. Throughout his ten month journey into the northern interior of South Africa and back out again along the River Krooman and the Great Desert, he closely chronicled his experiences in which he included everything from the histories of the native peoples to adventures with marauding bushmen. Campbell also recorded the effects of Christian influence upon the natives surrounding the mission towns. The preface states that "whilst pious Missionaries are zealously pursuing their grand object--the conversion of the Heathen to Christianity--they are materially contributing to the stores of general Science, and particularly to the advancement of Geographical Knowledge." Indeed, this work is a valuable look at missionary efforts in South Africa as well as an interesting and important narrative in the history of African travel and exploration. A beautifully illustrated publication.

Beautiful color frontispieces from the London first edition