JOURNAL OF HIS EXPEDITION TO NAMAQUALAND By Simon van der
Stel
The chief merit of Simon van der Stel's Journal of his Expedition to Namaqualand, 1685-6 ( Longmans, Green and Co., 25s.) consists in the fact that it was lost for a long time. It was discovered by Dr. Gilbert Waterhouse in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and has now been published under his editorship, in Dutch and English, with the financial assistance of the Board of Trinity College. The Journal forms the official report of an expedition to Namaqualand undertaken by van der Stel in his capacity as Commander at the Cape of Good Hope, and had it not been recovered from the archives of the Dutch East India Company, it is extremely unlikely that it would ever have been given to the general public : but a thing lost acquires such an adven- titious fascination that on medi.covery it often achieves a spurious merit, and this E ffical document is therefore more highly rated than many Eue`i documents of far greater interest which lie untouched in the files of Colonial govern- ments. Its publication adds nothing to our geographical knowledge : its comments on native inhabitants are naive and often misleading : it was not even an heroic adventure. Its one recommendation is the author's drawings which, though extremely good, do not suffice to redeem an otherwise dull and unnecessary book. The editing and production leave nothing to be desired.
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