An Account of a Voyage to New South Wales.

enlarged edition in original boards

The more desirable enlarged edition with additional plate and thirty-nine page supplement, in the original boards. Also new to this edition were added prefaces, indexes, and five pages at the end of the Account summarising French explorer François Péron's description of Sydney. The added supplement gives a condensed account of a number of travel voyages since 1802 and gives sketches of important persons including William Bligh, while the added plate depicts the 'crossing the line' ceremony sailors would perform on the event of crossing the equator.

George Barrington was an Australian convict turned prospector and public official of Parramatta. The legend of his story, of a criminal becoming a minister of justice in the New World, was used by hungry publishers to sell largely spurious accounts of travel to Australia. Despite being largely plagiarised, these works were probably the most widely read accounts of the early European settlers in Australia and contain important early depictions of Aborigines (5 plates), wildlife including a Kangaroo, Emu, Mountain Eagle, and Hyena (9 plates), views of Sydney (4 plates), and an early plan of New South Wales.

Second, enlarged edition; 2 vols, 8vo (24 x 15 cm); 27 plates including frontispieces, of which 26 hand-coloured, with hand-coloured vignettes to titles, discreet shelf label to pastedowns; original cloth backed boards, manuscript title labels to spines, edges uncut, some expert restoration to cloth, a fine fresh set in the original boards; [xiv], 472, [4]; [vi], 544, [4] pp.

Garvey (The Celebrated George Barrington), AB47-48; Ferguson 487, 486.