Just PublishedTHE JOURNALS OF THEREV. T. L. HODGSONEdited and annotated by R. L. Cope, with an introduction and anindex1977. xvii, 435 pp.. Front. Cloth, ISBN 0 85494 370 6.R16,00 + postageThomas Laidman Hodgson was a missionary of the Methodist Mis-sionary Society. He was in South Africa from 1821 to 1831, andplayed a leading part in establishing the first Christian mission be-yond the Vaal River within the borders of what was later to becomethe Transvaal. He worked for four years among the Seleka-Rolong,a Tswana group, and later among the Griquas for a period of twoyears.These journals contain important information on the Difaqane,the period of turmoil in the interior of South Africa which precededthe Great Trek. They also constitute a valuable record of the inter-action between missionaries and an African chiefdom which hadhad no previous contact with missionaries, fn addition, Hodgson'scomments on social and economic conditions both within theColony and beyond its borders are of considerable interest.The Journals of the Rev, T. L. Hodgson, like The Papers of JohnMackenzie, have been published under the auspices of the AfricanStudies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, the publica-tion of both books being based on original materia! held in theHistorical and Literary Papers Section of the University Library.WITWATERSRAND UNIVERSITY PRESS1 Jan Smuts Avenue2001 Johannesburg, South Africa212