Title: King Solomon’s Mines
Author: H. Rider Haggard
Pages: 233
Date: 1/18/25
When I chose this book, I honestly thought it was a non-fiction book similar to Stanley & Livingston’s trip to the inner part of Africa. Soon after I started reading it, I realized it was a fictional novel along the lines of Treasure Island.
The was was written in 1885 by an Englishman working in Great Britain’s Colonial Services in South Africa. The book is about three white men (Sir Henry, Captain Good & Allan Quartermain, a white guide and a black porter named Umbopa who are following a 300 year old map to King Solomon’s Mines. Quartermain received it from a Portugese elephant hunter upon his deathbed, who had it in his family for 300 years and had just deciphered it. They were supposedly full of gold and diamonds somwhere in the very northern part of South Africa. Sir Henry’s brother (Neville) had attempted to go there, but never returned, and he wanted to find him. They start on a 4-month journey from Capetown using oxen and the last portion of civilization on foot. They then go further than anyone has ever gone before, crossing a great desert to reach two great mountains. After crossing them with some difficulty (and the death of one of the guides), they reach a plateau surrounded by mountains. There exist a nation of Africans that speak a language similar to Zulu. The white men profess themselves to be gods in order to save their own lives by showing one of the men’s false teeth, his monacle and his lily white legs.
We soon learn that Umbopa is the rightful king, having been exiled with his mother when he was a baby after his Uncle Twala killed his father & usurped the throne. There is a battle with many deaths and Umbopa ultimately becomes king. He allows his three white friends to go to the mine to collect as many diamonds as they want, but they are betrayed by Twala’s former witch and are sealed inside the mine. After two days, they escape the mine, but are only left with a pocketful of diamonds, which still makes them extremely wealthy. On their return to civilation, they find Neville, who had become crippled after a stone crushed his leg trying to get across the mountains.
What I learned from this book was the following:
1) How Great Britain’s Colonial Service was a way for low to medium class men to work for the government in its colonies to climb to higher positions within society, government and/or businesses. Some of them ended up working for the East India Company as well.
2) Because this book took place in 1880’s Africa, there were almost no female characters in it, due to the time & location being a male dominated society. The only two women mentioned were a slave girl saved by Captain Good and the 100+ year old witch.
3) As she lay dying, the servant girl Foulata said ” Say to Captain Good that I love him, and that I am glad to die for him because I know that he cannot cumber his life with me, for the sun cannot mate with the darkness, nor the white with the black.” This represents the times – meaning that whites & blacks were not to intermarry or even have sexual relations with one another. I guess I knew this to some extent, but seeing it in print really hit home.
The following lessons will increase my prospect for success after prison:
1) On page 62 of the book, it said,” Everthing has an end, if only you live long enough to see it.” I can think of no better saying for someone in prison. Although my sentence is for four years and I will probably get out after two years with Good TIme and FSA credits, some guys are here for up to 40 years. I am fortunate that I will be out when I am 56, but there are men here who, based on their age & sentence, will never see outside the prison again. It is good to keep that in perspective.
2) You can have high quality, loyal friends across ethnic, nationality and class lines and should have them. That the five travelers went through together in this book was outstanding (desert heat with no water, cold mountains with no heat, locals trying to kill them, etc), but they stuck together through it all. The respect that whites had for Umbopa was great and it was mutual. I know that I have excellent friends on the outside who write me letters and send signs of support. Inside, I have gotten to know sex offenders, drug dealers, credit card fraudsters and Medicare fraudsters from all walks of life – white, Latino, black, Jewish and Catholic. Given the lack of resources, we all rely on each other and help others whenever we can.
3) There were three new words I learned:
a) Satiety – fullness to the point of excess.
b) Deprecate – to express disappointment of, belittle.
c) Consanguinty – blood relationship.