CETYWAYO and His White Neighbors or Remarks on Recent Events in Zululand, Natal and the Transvaal

London: Trubner & Co. Very Good. 1890. Third Edition. Hardcover. lxxviii, 314 pages; Contents clean and secure in original dark blue cloth binding with bright gilt lettering at spine and front board; cloth rubbed at spine ends and corners (rounded); lacks blank at end of text. Cetywayo and His White Neighbours, or Remarks on Recent Events in Zululand, Natal and the Transvaal is a non-fiction book by H. Rider Haggard, his first full-length published work and was based on his time in South Africa. Rider Haggard travelled to southern Africa in 1875 and remained in the country for six years, during which time he served as Master of the High Court of the Transvaal and an adjutant of the Pretoria Horse. The "Cetywayo" of the title is the Zulu king Cetshwayo kaMpande, who pursued, but failed to achieve a peaceful relationship with the British. The work was first published in 1882 with Haggard paying Trubner and Company 50 pounds to produce 750 copies of the book. Despite some good reviews and letters of praise from such figures as Lord Carnarvon and Randolph Churchill, only 154 copies had sold after a year, so Haggard lost his fifty pounds. By 1888 Haggard had become a popular novelist with the success of his Alain Quartermain adventures (King Solomon's Mines, etc.), so a second edition was issued (1,000 copies), which also had poor sales. Consequently, this third edition published in 1890 had a limited number of predecessors. An attractive example of this fascinating examination of the situation in southern Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War and First Boer War. " Those years were crucial in the history of the country because of the two deadly conflicts fought by the British: the Anglo-Zulu War and the first Boer war, both marked by the traumatic defeats at Isandhlwana and Majuba Hill. On his return to England, Haggard decided to give an account of the events based on his own observations and perspective as an active witness. Though a supporter of British imperialism, Haggard criticized Britain’s political choices in Zululand at the time and tried to show that the principal cause of the conflicts was British ignorance of Zulu society. He blamed the arrival of Western civilisation for permanently compromising Zulu identity as its traders and missionaries brought with them evils which could no longer be eradicated. Torn between his admiration for the Zulu, which was to inspire him in his subsequent well-known works of fiction, and his belief that development of the colonies was essential for Britain, but also conscious that white domination was inescapable, he suggested a protectorate as being a lesser evil." [Barbier, Haggard in Zululand: A Reluctant Imperialist?] .