Beschreibung:

CHAPMAN, James (1831-1872). Autograph letter signed (a retained draft) to 'My dear friend Khamma', Kawgnara, 10 June 1862, including 9 cancelled words and 4 insertions, one page, 4to (a few spots, slight discolouration, small splits and fraying at edges, not touching text, remains of mount on verso). Written during the last phase of Chapman's journey to the Victoria Falls with Thomas Baines He sends greetings to his correspondent and his father, congratulating him on having 'embraced that faith without which we mostly are as nothing', calling God's blessings on him and continues: 'I am glad you are beginning to read. You will consequently not long be ignorant of the fact that the most Christian people are the most forward in the Arts and Sciences & consequently the most happy'. The draft also refers to a letter to be forwarded to the Cape for his wife, which suggests that his correspondent was probably on or near the coast. Chapman and Baines set out on their journey from Walvis Bay on the Atlantic coast to Sinamani's Town on the Zambesi in July 1861. The present draft is dated on the day after they reached Kawgnara, where Chapman records in his Travels that he was recognised by bushmen who remembered his earlier visit on the 1853-1855 expedition. At this stage of the journey he was much occupied with observing rhinoceroses. The party reached the Victoria Falls in August 1862 but were prevented by illness from completing the journey down the Zambesi to the coast, and after eight months returned to South West Africa. Chapman's fame rests largely on his Travels in the interior of South Africa comprising fifteen years' hunting and trading (1868) [for which see lot 451], in which he included extensive information on the fauna, flora and ethnology of the territories he had visited.