First News from Botany Bay: The London Chronicle Account of the Foundation of Australia in 1788.

Sydney / East Kew: Horden House / Boroondara Press, 1987. 1st ed.. Paperback wide octavo, dustjacket, very good condition (in very good dustjacket), card covers, frontispiece, minor edgewear jacket (tiny tear top edge, tiny scuff base spine). 32 pp. This fascinating booklet comprises the first published account of Australia's foundation in 1788 and was printed on the front page of the London Chronicle newspaper on 24 March 1789. The Chronicle printed three further articles on the First Fleet's expedition to Botany Bay, which for a long time was the only public account of the new colony in New South Wales. The four articles published in the London Chronicle on 24 March (No. 5058), 26 March (No. 5059), 28 March (No. 5060), and 4 April 1789 (No. 5063), are reproduced without change. Apart from the alteration of the 'long s' to the standard modern form, the vagaries of the 18th-century journalist's orthography, punctuation and typographical style have been retained. There is an Appendix ('An Extract of a Journal from England to Botany Bay', by Richard Williams, belonging to the Ship Borrow Dale, Capt. Reed), and a Bibliography of eyewitness accounts of the first year of settlement. (A limited edition of 500 copies.).