MY LORD,
Your Lordship's
Most obedient, very humble,
and devoted servant,
DAVID COLLINS
Beaumont Street,
June 26, 1802
ADVERTISEMENT
London, 17th June 1802
The very flattering reception which my former Account of the English Colony in New South Wales experienced from a candid and liberal public, has induced me to continue my labours in the character of its historian; having been favoured with materials for this purpose, on the authenticity of which I can safely stake my credit.
Should the reader feel wearied with the detail of crimes and their consequences, the fault lies not with me. I have only to regret that a soil of so much promise has not produced better fruit. Such as there was, I have diligently gathered; and have endeavoured to render it as palatable as the nature of it would allow me. When we reflect that the exotics with which this new plantation is supplied are chiefly the refuse of our domestic nurseries; and duly consider that, however beneficial the act of transplantation may finally be found, it must for a time retard the growth, and will generally protract the fruit for a season, however fertile the original stock, we ought, perhaps, considerably to moderate our expectations. By patient culture, skilfully directed, in a climate so propitious, and a soil so favourable, much may yet be effected: after experience shall have once thoroughly ascertained all the dangers and difficulties necessary to be surmounted, before most judicious cultivators can completely avail themselves of the many local advantages of which the situation is undoubtedly susceptible.
To relieve the mind as much as possible from the contemplation of enormities, and the disgustingly wretched picture which vice must ever exhibit, I have not only interspersed a few notices of rare and curious objects in Natural History peculiar to the Australian regions; but have also inserted the two voyages which were made in the little sloop Norfolk, by Captain Flinders and Mr. Bass, in the order of time in which they occurred, instead of placing them in an Appendix.
The Natives too have contributed to assist me in this part of my undertaking; and some additional light is thrown upon their peculiar manners and customs in the course of the work. It were to be wished, that they never had been seen in any other state than that which the subjoined view of them presents, in the happy and peaceable exercise of their freedom and amusements.