South Australia. Outline of the plan of a proposed colony…
South Australia. Outline of the plan of a proposed colony to be founded on the south coast of Australia…

London: Ridgway and Sons, 1834.

Octavo, 80pp., three folding maps with original outline handcolouring, a fine copy polished tan half calf by Aquarius.

With the recollections of veterans of the Flinders voyage

Rare: 'the establishment of the South Australian Association proposed' (Ferguson). Remarkably, this edition includes detailed accounts by the veterans of the Flinders voyage William Westall and John Aken, whose personal recollections are used to assert that Flinders himself had approved of the idea of a settlement on the southern coast.

Rare: 'the establishment of the South Australian Association proposed' (Ferguson). Remarkably, this edition includes detailed accounts by the veterans of the Flinders voyage William Westall and John Aken, whose personal recollections are used to assert that Flinders himself had approved of the idea of a settlement on the southern coast.

Although unsigned, the book would certainly have been written under the auspices of Wakefield, who was the driving force behind the South Australian Association, which had been formed in 1834 for the establishment of a free settler colony. 'A previous Society with the same objects was constituted in 1831, when a number of gentlemen formed themselves into a committee for establishing a chartered company. The attempt to obtain the desired charter having failed, these persons were disbanded, and the project abandoned for a time' (Ferguson). Indeed, this book reproduces some material from the 1831 proposal of the South Australian company (see previous item), and also reuses the same three maps; interestingly, the map of "Southern Australia" has been updated to include several added details regarding the course of the Murray River "traced 1000 miles", a reference to Sturt's expedition.

This 1834 edition includes significant additional material concerning prospects for Kangaroo Island, including the testimonies of Aken and Westall who accompanied Matthew Flinders aboard the Investigator. These are presented as question and answer sessions, at the conclusion of which Westall and Aken signed their testimonies as true and correct statements (their addresses in London and Wapping are likewise provided). Interestingly, a further description is provided by 'Chevalier Dillon, late a Captain in the Hon. East India Company's Service'. It was Peter Dillon who, in 1826, had discovered the fate of the La Pérouse expedition; some years previously he traded in Australian waters and recounts a voyage of 1815 to procure salt from Kangaroo Island.

This copy includes three maps, a collation which matches that of the copy in the Goldsmiths-Kress catalogue. However, Ferguson lists only two maps for this book, as with the Nan Kivell copy held by the National Library, and the 1962 facsimile only included two maps.

Ferguson, 2516.

Ref: #4107169