Australian History
Book Details

The Minerva Journal of John Washington Price

A Voyage from Cork, Ireland, to Sydney, New South Wales, 1798–1800

Transcribed and edited with an introduction by Pamela Jeanne Fulton

The journal of John Washington Price, the surgeon of the transport Minerva which sailed from Cork for Sydney in 1799 carrying 200 convicts.

Opinion

‘The journal has been reproduced as a handsome volume by Miegunyah Press and the scholarship of Pamela Fulton is superb. The publication represents a significant addition to the historical records of early Australia and it must be said that this is just the latest of twenty-five offerings by this exceptional press, whose contribution to Australasian history is now very impressive indeed.’ (Tim Flannery, Australian Book Review, May 2000)

‘. . . a finely presented piece of work, of interest to general readers and especially to colonial buffs.’ (Stephen Saunders, The Canberra Times, 13 May 2000)

About this Title

John Washington Price was the surgeon of the transport Minerva which sailed from Cork for Sydney in 1799 carrying two hundred convicts. Many of them were United Irishmen transported for their role in the 1798 rebellion.

Price had trained at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. When they set sail he was twenty-one, well educated, with a keen awareness of the world around him. His journal is lively, copious and detailed. It covers the entire voyage both to and from Sydney. Price was an acute observer of people and his journal is full of minutiae about convicts, sailors and soldiers, and the flora and fauna encountered along the way.

During the voyage Price received ‘lessons in drawing and natural history’ from a fellow-traveller, the artist John William Lewin, and a highlight of the journal is the inclusion of Price’s twenty-nine watercolour illustrations. These exquisite little works, which are sometimes reminiscent of Lewin, include unique and important scenes of Sydney, the first Government House, the indigenous people and the native fauna.

In Sydney, where he stayed for a month, Price was a frequent visitor to Government House. He met such leading figures as Bennelong, Dr Balmain, D’Arcy Wentworth, George Barrington and the Reverend Samuel Marsden, and his observations of town life contain a great deal of previously unrecorded information.

Price’s journal is held in the Wellesley Collection at the British Library, London. Apart from short extracts it has not before been published.

Table of Contents

Note on Conversion
Introduction
Acknowledgements

1 Cove and Cork
2 Rebellion and aftermath
3 Cork to Rio de Janerio
4 Ashore at Rio de Janerio
5 Rio de Janerio to Port Jackson
6 Ashore and Sydney and Parramatta
7 Towrds the tropics
8 Dampier Strait
9 The Moluccas to Calcutta

Notes
Appendix
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Pamela Fulton is an Australian who now lives in New Brunswick, Canada, where she received her M.A. in English for a study of Price’s journal.

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978-0-522-84850-2