Travels & Adventures in South Australia 1836-1838

Reconnoitering Voyages and Travels With Adventures in the New Colonies of South Australia

A Particular Description of The Town of Adelaide, and Kangaroo Island; and an Account of the Present State of Sydney and Parts Adjacent During the Years 1836, 1837, 1838

by W. H. Leigh

The Currawong Press, 1982, [facsimile], [Smith, Elder and Co., 1839], ISBN 0908001355, black and white illustrations, black and white illustrated frontispiece, hardcover, dustjacket with Mylar sleeve

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows minor edge and shelf wear in protective Mylar sleeve (see photographs)

“First published in 1839, this facsimile edition provides a vivid – if sometimes draconian – view of early settlement in South Australia.  From squalid ‘slave-ship’ conditions aboard an immigrant ship to the often-miserable struggle of early bush life, Dr Leigh’s account spares little for the romantic.  Cruelly misled from the outset by the South Australian Company, the settlers were appallingly equipped to meet the privation they faced from the moment they landed at Kangaroo Island.  The weak soon fell into idle hopelessness.  Those of character needed all the resilience they could muster, like the large family – with piano! – who faced eviction from company tent to virgin bush within days of their arrival.
An unexpected bonus in this volume is the author’s visit to Sydney.  His description of its rambunctious lifestyle and pace provides a sharp contrast to the harsher and more subdued experiences of South Australia.
Dr Leigh’s impressions of the natives of South Australia are a mixture of awe at their bush skills and a horror of some of their practices.  While he enjoyed their sense of humour, he just as often feared for his life.  His descriptions of murders, fights and a voracious feast of whale are startling.”