A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson
Watkin Tench
Read by chocmuse
Watkin Tench was a British marine officer who sailed with the First Fleet from England to Australia, landing in January 1788. He first wrote an account of his experiences with the First Fleet in a book called "A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay". Later he published this book, "A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson", where he takes up from where he left off in the previous account; July 1788 up until he left the colony in December 1791. This is one of the earliest published accounts of this pivotal period in Australian history. Tench displays all the assumptions and world-views of an officer of Imperial England, but also reveals his own intelligent personality and occasional flashes of empathy. The account is a classic of its kind and is invaluable to historians. (Summary by chocmuse) (6 hr 34 min)
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Patricia Ridley
Thank you for reading this invaluable journal. I was heartened to her about the humane treatment of the Indians that was led by the governor. It was so different from the accounts I read about the treatment of the Indians by the colonists who settled north America.