From Baird Maritime
There has been a rush of books lately on the early days of Britain's colonies in Australia, their exploration and development. This is one of the better ones.
The "commentator", who interprets and explains the journal of the real author and subject of the journal, has done so with admirable clarity. His work has been further enhanced by a wide and very appropriate selection of pictures comprising paintings, charts, cartoons and lithographs. All of this has been beautifully and expensively produced by the publisher.
Bowes Smyth was observant and literate. Not being part of the ships crew, he was able to maintain a useful detachment that makes his opinions all the more valuable because of their independence. As Hill makes clear, he was most certainly not part of the ship's or the colony's "establishment".
All in all a valuable and really quite delightful record of the voyage of the "First Fleet" to Port Jackson and the establishment of the colony of New South Wales in what was to become the City of Sydney.
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