GOLD AND THE GOSPEL IN MASONALAND
1888
Being the journals of
1. THE MASHONALAND MISSION OF BISHOP KNIGHT – BRUCE
2. THE CONCESSION JOURNEY OF CHARLES DUNELL RUDD
Edited respectively by
CONSTANCE E. FRIPP, M.B.E.
AND V. W. HILLER
CHATTO & WINDUS
1949
Knight-Bruce believed the Mashona were being harried and enslaved by the Matabele, after relieving permission from Lobengula he set out in 1838 to explore. He took no other European with him and confided his most personal thoughts and difficulties to his journal. Though he was beset with sickness and loneliness and daily more horrified by the heathenism and misery around him the general tone is lively. He left his wagons at the Hunyane river, and gone into the more northerly part of Mashonaland on foot. After forty days he returned to them, having walked over 535 miles. He had crossed the Zambesi at Zumbo, the Portuguese outpost. On one occasion, in the Barotse country, he had narrowly escaped a marauding party of the Gaza tribe.
The diary is reproduced verbatim in its entirety here for the first time with his note retained as footnotes.
A keen big game hunter and excellent shot most of the hunting on this trip was for the pot. He did encounter Count Schweinitz who was on his own hunting safari, he also make frequent reference to F.C. Selous who had passed through the region the previous year.
Rudd, Cecil Rhodes business partner and joint founder of De Beers was sent by Rhodes to negotiate with Lobengula in 1888 and the concession he obtained was most important, eventually leading to the founding of Rhodesia and the Matabele war. Lofty promises were made; guns, ammunition and wealth in exchange for undefined total land rights and a military presence in the form of troops and a "steamboat with guns" on the Zambesi River. The broad, very general language of the Concession gave Rhodes and BSAC complete license to exploit the land and people of Matabeleland. Promises made this time were only marginally kept or not kept at all. This provoked strong opposition from Knight-Bishop and led to the comment "Gold and the gospel are fighting for the mastery, and I fear gold will win"
The importance of this account lies in it being the only full, firsthand record of the journey and negotiations. Also includes the full text of the concession and a useful appendix of biographical and topographic notes.
The papers were given to the Central African Archive in Salisbury (Harare) Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and they published them as part of the Oppenheimer Series. This is number 4 in the series.
26 x 18 cm. ix + 246 pp + b/w photo plates + 2 folding maps. Top edge gilt.
Very good condition. Cloth faded on the spine and along the edges. Corners of the boards bumped. Many pages unopened on the fore-edge (so unread).
