A Woman's Trek from the Cape to Cairo
London: Methuen, 1907.
First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. xvi, 424 pp, with 64 illustrations from photographs and 2 folding maps. Recently rebound in quarter leather and marbled boards, with new endpapers. Light foxing, a few smudges in the margins, else fine. Hall was the first woman to cross Africa from south to north, which she did by foot, rail, steamer, and rickshaw in the company of her terrier and the native guides she hired along the way.Robinson (p. 15) describes it as "an astonishing journey, which Miss Hall took entirely in her diminutive stride...Her bands of porters became little communities of which she, with her small, rounded figure and thoroughly British bearing, became a local Queen Victoria...Where possible, she would stay at mission stations en route, but never regretted having to camp in a native village if need be; the chief might meet her with suspicious bewilderment, but they would always part with gales of laughter and 'the best of friends.'" In the Preface, Hall herself expresses hope that her book may find an receptive readership notwithstanding the fact that it is "written from a woman's point of view, minus big game romances, and the usual exaggerations incidental to all things African."
Item #14841
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