A Hunting Expedition to the Transvaal

"A Hunting Expedition to the Transvaal by D. Fernandes das Neves, translated by Mariana Monteiro...a very interesting book...Neves, a merchant adventurer trading for ivory in the country at the back of Delagoa Bay, has written what is obviously a trustworthy account of his adventures as a hunter." -Pall Mall Gazette, June 19, 1879

"Das Neves...passed through the Venda country to see...rival to the Gaza throne...the plan went horribly wrong and das Neves escaped through the eye of a needle." - Transient Workspaces: Technologies of Everyday Innovation in Zimbabwe (2014)

"Portuguese hunter-trader Diocleciano Fernandes das Neves'...disposed of a hippo that had been menacing farmers along the riverbanks." -Women in African Colonial Histories (2002)

"Senhor Neves had for many years unusual opportunities of studying the various tribes of the country he hunted over...a very stirring, well-told narrative." - University Magazine (1879)

In 1860, after his accumulated wealth had been plundered by raiding tribesmen, Portuguese merchant, ivory trader and hunter Diocleciano Fernandes das Neves (1829-1883) was forced to go on an ivory hunting expedition from Portuguese East Africa into the Transvaal. He would barely escape with his life after being hunted by both wild beasts and hostile tribes, as he narrates in his translated 1879 book "A Hunting Expedition to the Transvaal." It is this book of 220 pages, translated by Mariana Montiero in 1879, that has been republished here for the convenience of the interested reader.

In introducing his book, da Neves writes:

"Many indeed are the dangers which await an emigrant to South-eastern Africa. The climate - that inexorable enemy of the European race - ever holds over his head a deadly weapon. The natives rob him of all the goods which chance or opportunity put in their way. But what above all distresses the emigrant...a country where human flesh was regarded as merchandise, and where this infamous traffic was carried on...it was not extraordinary that the people should have sunk to the lowest stage of degradation. They, indeed, were not the guilty ones. The fault lay chiefly with the home government, that took no pains to punish its delegates in Africa, or to reprehend the shameful connivance of the authorities in permitting the odious traffic of slavery to be carried on."