Parley with the Devil: The Trials and Triumphs of an Irish Settler in Africa – Kevin Butler

Parley with the Devil: The Trials and Triumphs of an Irish Settler in Victorian Colonial Africa Kevin Butler

Published by Kebu Trading

2011 1st Edition

277 pages

Paperback in Very good nick!

Parley with the Devil is a captivating tale of adventure and romance which recounts the life and tribulations of a young Irish lad who arrives in the colonial Cape in 1840 as a new cavalry recruit in defence of the eastern border. He is wounded by a Xhosa spear in a skirmish with cattle thieves, fights a duel for the honour of a lady and treks by wagon across wild African countryside. His many exploits are interwoven with real historical events which include Dick King's ride South, the battle of Congella, the convict crisis in Cape Town and the tragic loss of the troopship Birkenhead off the Cape coast. The story includes an ongoing campaign against the illegal slave trade, which results in the hero himself eventually being abducted into incarceration in an Arab slave fort up the West coast of Africa. It is a gripping, old-fashioned yarn with several unexpected changes of direction and imparts much interesting historical information along the way.