A very attractive copy of the first edition of Hunter's important Journal of the first years of settlement at Sydney.

A very attractive copy of the first edition of Hunter's important Journal of the first years of settlement at Sydney.

The first published engraved view of Sydney contained in the book is well known, but Hunter's Journal also includes a fascinating plate of a "Family of New South Wales" engraved by the artist and poet William Blake, and a marvellous large-format map of the entire Sydney basin after the original by William Bradley. Less well-known is the fact that Hunter's book also includes an important continuation of Governor Phillip's journals, as it prints his dispatches to the end of 1791.

Second captain of HMS Sirius under Phillip for the voyage to Botany Bay, Hunter became actively engaged in surveying and exploration in New South Wales, making an important southern hemisphere circumnavigation in 1789, when he took the Sirius to Cape Town and back in the low latitudes. Hunter was personally devastated when he later lost the ship, driven on shore in a difficult squall off the treacherous coast of Norfolk Island in March 1790. He finally sailed for England a year later, together with some of his longest-serving officers. Forced to travel on a hired Dutch transport ship, the voyage home took a long 13 months, presumably allowing him ample time to prepare a best copy of his journals.

Hunter gives an excellent account of many activities, particularly the first account of the exploration and the settlement at Norfolk Island (based on King's papers), which are treated more cursorily by the other First Fleet chroniclers. Hunter was an experienced sea captain and the most dedicated navigator of the First Fleeters, and his book is in effect the first pilot for Australian waters and a significant companion to Cook, in particular, whose works he frequently consulted. The work includes the earliest reference to the possibility of there being a strait between the mainland and Tasmania. Hunter records, "There is reason thence to believe, that there is in that space either a very deep gulf, or a straight, which may separate Van Diemen's Land from New Holland…" (p.26).

The book was edited for the press by the Scottish antiquarian George Chalmers, and was heavily subscribed by booksellers; its clout can easily be measured by noting other subscribers including Joseph Banks, Lord Sydney, Evan Nepean, and Alexander Dalrymple.