A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales
Including an Accurate Description of the Situation of the Colony, of the Natives, and of its Natural Productions

A 1793 account of the settlement in Port Jackson, New South Wales, by a member of the First Fleet.

Watkin Tench (Author)

9781108039147, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 December 2011

238 pages, 1 map
24.4 x 17 x 1.3 cm, 0.39 kg

In May 1787 a fleet of ships carrying convicts left England bound for Botany Bay, New South Wales, where they were to establish a settlement. One of the crew on board the Charlotte was Watkin Tench (c.1758–1833), who wrote about the voyage of what was later known as the First Fleet. He remained in New South Wales, living in Port Jackson (part of present-day Sydney) from 1788 to 1791, and in this work, published in 1793, he gives a vivid, first-hand account of the early years of British settlement. The chapters are chronologically organised and discuss the many challenges settlers in the fledgling colony faced in staying alive, such as illness and lack of food and other provisions. He also recounts the often violent encounters and 'unabated animosity' between the settlers and the aboriginal people, making this work an important source on the colonisation of Australia.

Dedication
Preface
List of subscribers
1. A retrospect of the state of the colony of Port Jackson, on the date of my former narrative, in July, 1788
2. Transactions of the colony from the sailing of the first fleet in July, 1788, to the close of that year
3. Transactions of the colony, from the commencement of the year 1789, until the end of March
4. Transactions of the colony in April and May 1789
5. Transactions of the colony until the close of the year 1789
6. Transactions of the colony, from the beginning of the year 1790, until the end of May following
7. Transactions of the colony in June, July, and August, 1790
8. Transactions of the colony in the beginning of September, 1790
9. Transactions of the colony in part of September and October, 1790
10. The arrival of the supply from Batavia. The state of the colony in November, 1790
11. Farther transactions of the colony in November, 1790
12. Transactions of the colony in part of December, 1790
13. The transactions of the colony continued to the end of May, 1791
14. Travelling diaries in New South Wales
15. Transactions of the colony to the end of November, 1791
16. Transactions of the colony until the 18th of December, 1791, when I quitted it, with an account of its state at that time
17. Miscellaneous remarks on the country. On its vegetable production. On its climate. On its animal productions. On its natives, etc.
18. Observations on the convicts
19. Facts relating to the probability of establishing a whale fishery on the coast of New South Wales, with thoughts on the same.

Subject Areas: Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]