TENCH, Captain Watkin

A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay...

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J. Debrett, London, 1789. Octavo, without the half-title, traces of ownership inscription removed from title; later half black roan, rubbed, but a handsome copy. The first eye-witness account of Australia's convict settlement: 'the most accurate, most orderly and most valuable description of life in the colony in the first days' (Professor G.A. Wood).

This important book was the very first authentic account of settled Australia to appear in print, the first copies of the first edition appearing for sale on 24 April 1789. It was extremely popular, not surprisingly in view of the large public that would have been curious for news of the colony, and three editions in English, a Dublin piracy and French, German and Dutch translations all appeared quickly. Interestingly, Tench is believed to have been in contact with the publisher Debrett before he sailed for Sydney Cove.

Tench spent altogether four years in the colony, where he was the instigator of several of the early expeditions to explore the interior; it was Tench who traced the Nepean River to the Hawkesbury. Lively and cultured, these qualities come through in his book which gives a vivid picture of the voyage out, and the establishment of the town at Sydney Cove. Apart from its importance as the first genuine description of the new colony, Tench's Narrative provides us with the clearest of the surviving images of the crucial first months of settlement.

This is the second edition, published the same year as the first. As is often the case, this copy was bound with neither the half-title nor the terminal advertisements.
McLaren, 'Lapérouse in the Pacific', 807.

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• Bestellnummer: 007_712

• Antiquariat: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)