The Diary of Henry Francis Fynn by James Stuart & D. McK Malcolm (1950)

The Diary of Henry Francis Fynn by James Stuart & D. McK Malcolm (Ltd Edition #914). Published by Shutter & Shooter, 1950. Hardcover. Used, Very Good condition. Good DJ. 341pp.

Henry Francis Fynn was the first European settler in Natal. He was born in London in 1803 and arrived in South Africa in 1818. He kept a diary from 1824-1836, carrying it wrapped in the skin of an elephant's ear. As the first European in Natal, ink was hard to come by, and he made much of the ink he used to write the diary from flowers. Fynn knew Shaka Zulu well and became completely fluent in Zulu. Nathaniel Isaacs, the most famous writer about Natal from this early period, considered Fynn to be without peer in his knowledge of Zulu and the Zulus and pressed Fynn to publish his diary.

In the late 1830s Fynn enlisted the help of others with respect to getting his diary published. Despite Fynn's efforts his diary was not published until 1950, long after his death.

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