Benita An African Romance Annotated

Benita: An African Romance (alternatively titled The Spirit of Bambatse) is a novel by H. Rider Haggard.

Benita: An African Romance (alternatively titled The Spirit of Bambatse) is a novel by H. Rider Haggard.This all-but-forgotten work by the master of the "lost race" adventure story has just about everything a reader could possibly hope for in a book: a treasure hunt, battles between African tribes, a plucky heroine, a shipwreck, an insane Jewish villain, the ghost of a 17th century Portuguese woman, mesmerism and even a nice romantic love story.

An adventurous trader, it is said, hearing the legend of a great treasure buried a party of Portuguese hundreds of years before, as the last resource attempted its discovery with the help of a mesmerist. A child was put into a trance and gave his mesmerist details of the adventures and death of the unhappy Portuguese men and women. With much other detail, the boy described the burial of the great treasure and its exact situation so accurately that the white man and the mesmerist were able to dig for and find the place where it had been -- for the bags were gone, swept out by the floods of the river. In another trance, the boy revealed where the sacks still lay; but before the white trader could renew his search for them, the party was hunted out of the country by natives whose superstitious fears were aroused, barely escaping with their lives.

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It may interest readers of this story to know that its author believes it to have a certain foundation in fact.It was said about five-and-twenty or thirty years ago that an adventurous trader, hearing from some natives in the territory that lies at the back of Quilimane, the legend of a great treasure buried in or about the sixteenth century by a party of Portuguese who were afterwards massacred, as a last resource attempted its discovery by the help of a mesmerist. According to this history the child who was used as a subject in the experiment, when in a state of trance, detailed the adventures and death of the unhappy Portuguese men and women, two of whom leapt from the point of a high rock into the Zambesi. Although he knew no tongue but English, this clairvoyant child is declared to have repeated in Portuguese the prayers these unfortunates offered up, and even to have sung the very hymns they sang. Moreover, with much other detail, he described the burial of the great treasure and its exact situation so accurately that the white man and the mesmerist were able to dig for and find the place where it had been-for the bags were gone, swept out by the floods of the river.Some gold coins remained, however, one of them a ducat of Aloysius Mocenigo, Doge of Venice. Afterwards the boy was again thrown into a trance (in all he was mesmerized eight times), and revealed where the sacks still lay; but before the white trader could renew his search for them, the party was hunted out of the country by natives whose superstitious fears were aroused, barely escaping with their lives.It should be added that, as in the following tale, the chief who was ruling there when the tragedy happened, declared the place to be sacred, and that if it were entered evil would befall his tribe. Thus it came about that for generations it was never violated, until at length his descendants were driven farther from the river by war, and from one of them the white man heard the legend.

In this rollicking action-adventure tale, master storyteller H. Rider Haggard tweaks his own formula and casts a spirited heroine as the novel's protagonist. Packed with high-seas adventures, lost civilizations, priceless treasure, nearly lethal battles, and a series of close calls, Benita is a fun and engaging read.

Benita: An African Romance (alternatively titled The Spirit of Bambatse) is a novel by H. Rider Haggard.

Benita: An African Romance (alternatively titled The Spirit of Bambatse) is a novel by H. Rider Haggard.

Benita: An African Romance (alternatively titled The Spirit of Bambatse) is a novel by H. Rider Haggard.The novel was first published in serial form in Cassell's Magazine in the December 1905 through May 1906 issues; the first hardcover edition followed from Cassell & Company, London, 7 September 1906. Cassell reissued the title in 1920 and 1926. Subsequent British editions were published by Chariot Books in 1952 and Macdonald & Co. in 1965. An ebook edition was issued by Project Gutenberg in March 2006. The first U.S. edition was published by Longmans, Green and Co. in 1906 under the alternate title The Spirit of Bambatse, A Romance, which was Haggard's preferred title and was used for most later American editions. The significance of the collection was recognized by its republication (also as The Spirit of Bambatse) by the Newcastle Publishing Company as the twenty-second volume of the Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library series in October, 1979. The Newcastle edition was reissued by Wildside Press in February 2001. The novel has also been gathered together with Haggard's Ayesha: The Return of She (1905) into the omnibus collection Ayesha: The Return of She / Benita: An African Romance (New Orchard, 1989)