On New Year's Eve 1874, the British explorer and naturalist Frank Oates became one of the first Europeans since David Livingstone to see the magnificent Victoria Falls. A month later, he was dead from malaria, aged 34. This book draws on the original diaries, letters and sketches of Frank Oates to paint a vivid picture of the Victorian exploration of Central Africa. It documents his encounters with legendary rulers such as King Lobengula of the Ndebele and larger-than-life characters like the ivory hunter Frederick Selous, and records Oates' final, fatal trek through the Zambezi Valley towards Victoria Falls. Offering the modern reader an unparalleled view of nineteenth-century Africa at a period of transition, "Matabeleland and The Victoria Falls" is detailed, personal, and compelling.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.

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Anne Troelstra’s fine bibliography is an outstanding and ground-breaking work. He has provided the academic world with a long-needed bibliographical record of human endeavour in the field of the natural sciences. The travel narratives listed here encompass all aspects of the natural world in every part of the globe, but are especially concerned with its fauna, flora and fossil remains. Such eyewitness accounts have always fascinated their readers, but they were never written solely for entertainment: fragmentary though they often are, these narratives of travel and exploration are of immense importance for our scientific understanding of life on earth, providing us with a window on an ever changing, and often vanishing, natural world. Without such records of the past we could not track, document or understand the significance of changes that are so important for the study of zoogeography. With this book Troelstra gives us a superb overview of natural history travel narratives. The well over four thousand detailed entries, ranging over four centuries and all major western European languages, are drawn from a wide range of sources and include both printed books and periodical contributions. While no subject bibliography by a single author can attain absolute completeness, Troelstra’s work is comprehensive to a truly remarkable degree. The entries are arranged alphabetically by author and chronologically, by the year of first publication, under the author’s name. A brief biography, with the scope and range of their work, is given for each author; every title is set in context, the contents – including illustrations – are described and all known editions and translations are cited. In addition, there is a geographical index that cross refers between authors and the regions visited, and a full list of the bibliographical and biographical sources used in compiling the bibliography.