Diary & Letters of Admiral Sir C H Fremantle, GCB, Relating to the Founding of the Colony of Western Australia, 1829 by Charles Howe Fremantle and edited by Lord Cottesloe CB

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Previous owner has signed inside front cover. Some foxing to last page.

Captain Charles Fremantle took formal British possession of the west coast of Australia on 2 May 1829. This was only a month before the first European settlers arrived in the new Swan River Colony.

This book is a facsimile of his diary for the four months he remained in the colony and also for a brief return visit he made three years later. The diary was initially published in London in 1928.

The diary and letters of the 29-year-old captain provide a day-to-day account of the voyage from Great Britain, the early exploration of the Swan River and its environs, and the lives of the first settlers.

Captain Fremantle reveals how he and his men hunt seals and other animals, construct the first buildings in the colony, and plant gardens, and describes in detail his first contact with Indigenous people. (book flap)