‘VIC’ VISSER BECHUANALAND
Postal History
Postal History
VV512
BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE / British West Charterland Expedition 1897 (3rd November), stampless envelope from a member of the British West Charterland Expedition to Ngamiland. Addressed to ‘The Military Secretary / Government House / Cape Town’ and endorsed at upper left ‘From N’gami:- no stamps obtainable’. The envelope entered the mails at Palachwe where it received a PALACHWE KHAMAS TOWN (NO 3) single circle datestamp. Bearing a manuscript ‘T8d’ and a large ‘8D’ tax marking struck in black. A light cachet struck in violet at upper right reads in part ‘Control & Audit Dec 19?’ Backstamped with the scarce Cape Town CHARGE CLERK (NO 8) single circle datestamp. Incoming underpaid letters were referred to the Charge Clerk for assessment. Flap torn through the embossed crest of the Protectorate and a few edge faults. Very rare, being one of two items of mail recorded from this little-known expedition.
 
Note: The expedition to Ngamiland left Mafeking on the 4th May 1896 and was led by Captain F. Lugard on behalf of the ‘British West Charterland Ltd’. They proceeded north via Gaberones and Palapye where arrangements were made with Khama who agreed to provide a weekly runner service to maintain contact between the advancing expedition and the outside world via Palaype where mail entered the official Protectorate postal system. This cover was first reported by Douglas Roth in The Philatelist (1975). An article on this fascinating though ill-fated expedition was published by Tony Chilton in The Runner Post (RP16, p284 with a follow-up in RP21, p380).
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