A fascinating account of the early days in South Africa and Rhodesia by a perceptive observer - a notable contribution to the history of the stirring days of the pioneering of Kimberley, the development of the Rand gold fields and of Rhodes's new domain to the north. Hans Sauer, whom Rhodes referred to as "the genial ruffian", became one of the principal characters in the scramble for the Rand's new-found riches, purchased claims for Rhodes's syndicate and, much later, recorded his impressions of those exciting days in entertaining (and historically instructive) fashion. His South African ventures had left him a wealthy man, and he became wealthier still when he travelled to Matabeleland on the heels of the troopers who occupied Bulawayo, and invested shrewdly in land and mining. He is best remembered in Rhodesia as one of the three white men who accompanied Rhodes to the famous peace Indaba in the Matopo Hills during the Matabele Rebellion of 1895. Ex Africa was published in 1937, two years before Sauer's death in the South of France. His desriptions of rural life in the Orange Free State a century ago, and his reminiscences of the cradle days of the Rand and the founding of Rhodesia have seldom, if ever, been excelled. Of its kind, Ex Africa is a classic - a gold mine of source material.

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