Tench, Watkin

NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO BOTANY BAY; with An Account of New South Wales, Its Productions, Inhabitants, &c.

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d\b\fs24 Tench (Watkin) NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO BOTANY BAY; with An Account of New South Wales, Its Productions, Inhabitants, &c. To which is subjoined, a List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson. By Captain Watkin Tench, of the Marines. Pp. viii+[iv](contents, blank)+146, numerous blinder's blanks at end); post 8vo; twentieth century half calf, the spine decorated in gilt & black between raised bands, with gilt lettered green leather title label, [earlier?] marbled papered boards, lightly rubbed and grazed, with a few surface chips to upper board (mainly at fore-edge); all edges yellow; small catalogue slip at centre of upper pastedown, the upper free endpaper slightly offset, hinges starting occasional marginal annotations, mostly in pencil, a few spots of foxing; printed for J. Debrett, London, 1789. First Edition. F.48; Wantrup 2. *Lacking (as often) the publisher's advertisement leaf at end. 'The earliest authentic account of the colony' [Wantrup, page 54]; an eye-witness account of the settlement at Port Jackson, by one of the participants. 'Watkin Tench was the first to mould Australian experience into a work of conscious art . . . His eye ranged over the convicts and the Aboriginals with a mixture of shrewd commonsense and sympathetic tolerance, and his reaction to the country itself shows the same qualities' [Australian Dictionary of Biography]. Item #166355

Price: $15,000.00