First edition of this travel classic by 'the greatest of the physician naturalists of Australia' (ADB). Bennett made two visits to Australia before permanently settling in Sydney in 1836, after which he established a successful practice and became a leading figure in colonial science holding numerous positions in bodies such as the newly-established Australian Museum, the Acclimatization Society, and the Zoological Society.

First edition of this travel classic by 'the greatest of the physician naturalists of Australia' (ADB). Bennett made two visits to Australia before permanently settling in Sydney in 1836, after which he established a successful practice and became a leading figure in colonial science holding numerous positions in bodies such as the newly-established Australian Museum, the Acclimatization Society, and the Zoological Society.

During his two early visits Bennett travelled extensively throughout New South Wales observing conditions amongst the settlers, convicts and various Aboriginal tribes. He is a good source for his observations on colonial farms, a smallpox epidemic among the Aborigines, the kangaroo hunt, koalas, wombats, emus, and other Australian flora and fauna. He journeyed inland to make observations on fauna, specifically the platypus. He also collected many fossils and natural history specimens for the comparative anatomist Richard Owen. Bennett's zoological work during these trips earned him the gold medal of the Royal College of Surgeons.

This eminently readable and very interesting account of Bennett's extensive Pacific wanderings also includes descriptions of various Asian ports visited during the voyages. Of particular interest are the descriptions of the large Ungka ape which Bennett collected in Singapore, and the native girl he rescued from the New Hebrides, whom he named Sophia. She accompanied him to London, but died in Plymouth three years later. He includes descriptions of New Zealand flax and its manufacture in Sydney, as well as matters as various as leprosy, the opium trade, the museum at Macao, Chinese plantations, and the cocoa-nut tree.