Records of South-Eastern Africa, nine demi octavo volumes, each of over five hundred pages, published in London from 1898 to 1903. These may be seen in the great libraries of Europe and Canada, as well as in South Africa. They contain a large number of Portuguese records copied from the originals, extracts from old Portuguese histories, the whole of the African portion of the Ethiopia Oriental of Dos Santos, and much more, together with English translations of them all, and a number of documents and extracts from ancient books in French, Dutch, and English, with a copious index of the whole. These volumes had their origin in the following manner:

The right honourable Cecil John Rhodes was prime minister of the Cape Colony, and as such secretary for native affairs. I was chief clerk in the native affairs department, a portion of my duty consisting in preparing documents, condensing masses of correspondence, &c, &c., for the use of my head. One morning he asked me if I knew anything about Francisco Barreto's expedition into South Africa. I told him all that I knew of it, which was very little more than the short account given by De Couto. After a few questions on other subjects, he said I could be much more usefully employed in collecting information upon the past than in doing mere routine work in the office, and at once he issued instructions that I was to be detached for special duty.