The History of Discovery in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand

First published in 1865, this two-volume history describes the European exploration and settlement of Australia and New Zealand.

In 1865, following a two-year visit to Australia, the prolific English writer William Howitt published this two-volume account of the European exploration of Australia and New Zealand. Volume 1 includes the voyages of Abel Tasman and Captain Cook, and other explorers up to the 1840s including Fitzroy and Darwin.The prolific writer William Howitt (1792–1879) embarked for Australia in 1852 and spent two years there travelling and panning for gold. His experiences resulted in several books that appealed to the Victorian public's avid interest in Antipodean exploration. Published in 1865, when New Zealand had only been recognised as a country for a generation, this two-volume work describes 'scenes of danger and of wild romance, of heroic daring and devoted deaths, such as few countries have to show'. It gives a valuable account of early European exploration and settlement in Australia and New Zealand as well as insights into European travellers' responses to this previously unknown continent. Volume 1 covers the early voyages of discovery to the Antipodes made by explorers including Abel Tasman and Captain Cook, and later expeditions up to the 1840s, including Fitzroy and Darwin's voyage around Australia and New Zealand aboard the Beagle.