Into the Hitherto Unknown. Ensign Beutler's Expedition to the Eastern Cape, 1752 (VRS Second Series No. 44)

On 29 February 1752 the official journal of the DEIC’s settlement at the Cape recorded that ‘the detachment under Ensign Beutler … which camped behind the Castle for about eight days, went on the march this morning.’ Just over 8 months later, on 6 November 1752, it noted, ‘Ensign Beutler has returned to this Castle with the rest of the detachment that was sent inland with him. Although the principal objective with which the men were sent out was missed due to unforeseen circumstances, it has been of some profit in view of other matters dealt with in more detail in the journal that was kept.’ The Castle was thus the beginning and end of the expedition, and this journal that we are about to launch, recounts what happened in between. Tonight, 261 years later, the VRS is connecting all three stages of that expedition here, on the very spot where Beutler and his men walked, talked and wrote. 

Hardcover. English. Van Riebeeck Society. 2nd Series No 44. 2013. 209 pp with colour map as frontis. Good condition in hardcover with dw. Book No: 2001449