Watkin Tench (1758–1833)

While Tench's first book is mostly about the process of establishing a colony, this one is more about the process of settling in - trying to make a living, and trying to make friends. He's generally much more reasonable when talking about the native population as individuals than as a group, which should surprise no one, but overall he's really quite decent about them. Moreso than he is about the convicts, sometimes. Of course, the convicts had already proved they were bad people, so.

Also, show more I never really realized before that the Australian colony was founded at almost exactly the same time that France started coming apart at the seams. Interesting. show less

This fascimile of a two texts written and published in the 18th Century is not, as you might imagine, a pastiche of archaic language and attitudes. Tench had a remarkably 20th Century view of things and talks candidly about the conduct of the European settlement of Australia (as a penal colony) from 1788 to 1792. He is sympathetic to the Aboriginal people who were unsettled by the impact of the Europeans. If Tench participated in some of that unsettling, he was honest enough to admit it. His show more speculation on the likely cause of the breakdown of initially good relations between Europeans and the Aboriginal inhabitants is illuminating and not at all self serving. This is the first extensive record of European/Aboriginal relations and is a worthwhile study in race relations and Australian history in general. show less

Tench is a complicated figure, but this is the first true work of Australian writing and is a fantastic insight into the mindset and struggles faced by the first colonialist invaders at the end of the 18th century. If there's a throughline of Australian narrative writing from 1788 to today, it begins with Tench.

I'm not entirely sure what the point of rating this would be, as it depends so much on the point of reading it. It's a primary source, which puts it in a whole different category from history books.

The spelling on this edition has clearly been modernized, which is a blessing; I would never have been able to read it so quickly if it hadn't been. Tench is an interesting character, clearly with at least a little bit of education in a number of subjects, and a keen sense of what his potential show more audience would be interested in. Some of the details of the early days of the encampment started to sound very familiar; I realized they'd probably been used as a source for the TV movie "Mary Bryant" I saw a few years back. show less