Correspondence, personal documents, biographical notes, memoranda, photographs and a scrap-book relating primarily to the acquisition of his Africana library, its transfer to the University of the Witwatersrand and destruction by fire in 1931 and to his voyage round the world in 1932-1933 to try and make good his losses. Correspondence is mainly with H.R. Raikes, Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand, but other correspondents include Sir William Dalrymple, M.W. Gray, J.D. Rheinallt Jones, P.W. Laidler, J.H. Pim and General J.C. Smuts.

Also correspondence of Dr. P.H. Butterfield re., his biography of Dr. Gubbins.

Three sheets containing six pages with the entries 343-372 of names, particulars and photos of people, entitled "List of liberated Africans, landed from the H.M. Ship 'Columbine' ".

The ship had landed at Port Victoria, Seychelles on the 15 January 1872. The people listed were registered on the 25 January 1872.

Historical background:
These ship registers of the HMS 'Columbine' relate to the aftermath of the abolotion of the slave trade by Great Britain in the 19th Century. The 'liberated Africans' were slaves who were recaptured from the slave trade, as part of the British Royal Navy's suppression activities throughout the 19th Century. After capturing a slave ship, the naval crew took the ship to specified ports to condemn the ship as a lawful prize. State officials took the slaves from the ship, registered them, and then apprenticed them to local employers or institutions for up to fourteen years (this is what the column entitled 'how disposed of' refers to, with the list of names of locals in the Seychelles who hired the Africans as apprentices). British imperial officials thought that the Seychelles was a good location for liberated Africans to serve apprenticeships because they believed that the climate suited them. The HMS 'Columbine' was actively involved in detaining slave dhows particularly in 1871-1872, according to the Naval database. (Information provided by Jake Christopher Richards, Cambridge, UK, August 2018)