BOUND FOR PRETORIA. THE TRAVEL WRITINGS OF HENRY ADAMS, IN SOUTH AFRICA

2016. Soft cover; 291 pages. Very good condition. Under 1kg Among those who accompanied the first Bishop of Pretoria to the Transvaal from England in 1878 was Henry Adams, a former bank clerk-turned-theological student, who was commissioned by a small English newspaper to write about their travels. BOUND FOR PRETORIA brings together his articles about the voyage aboard the steamship Danube and the arduous four-month ox-wagon trek that followed—first through Natal, drought stricken and preparing for war, and then up and over the Draken sberg into the Transvaal. The Anglo-Zulu War broke out within days of their arrival in Pretoria in early 1879. The young writer then produced detailed accounts about conditions in that small town when war, rebellion and resistance were in the air at every turn. Henry Adams’ duties as a founder member of the English Church in the Transvaal soon took precedence over his budding career as a writer. The articles he wrote about the journey were completely forgotten and when his death 13 years later was ruled a suicide, Henry Adams himself was also quickly forgotten. His descendants knew little more than that one of their ancestors had been a priest and that he had killed himself. This collection introduces Henry Adams to his descendants through his travel writings, which were found in 2015 by one of his great-granddaughters.