Account of the story of Godfrey Arabin, an English migrant to Australia. Godfrey, a surgeon by training and avid reader of Walter Scott novels who decides to leave behind his life of modest means and few excitements in London to settle in the colonies in Australia. The reader follows Godfrey on his travels through the Australian countryside and toward his goal of starting a new life in his new home. Thomas McCombie takes the readers of his novel with him on Arabins journey through incessant rain and terrain hard to surpass. He describes in catching words Arabins encounters fellow colonists and Aborigines and the developement of a lifelong friendship with Captain Thomson. The novel is interspersed with observations on the social order among British migrants to Australia and their descendants. The book closes with an essay essay on the Aborigines of Australia. Thomas McCombie speaks with the perspective of a colonist of the nature the native people of Australia, their habits and qualities. The Scotsman Thomas McCombie (1819-1869) was a politician and journalist who arrived in Australia at the age of 22. Originally set to become a grazier, he soon found the pen and press more appealing than tending to livestock. He became the part owner of The Port Phillip Gazette, Melbournes second newspaper in 1844.
Good condition, binding slightly chipped. Ferguson 5435.