“Since the time of Robinson Crusoe, literature has produced nothing like these ‘Tales of the Colonies.’”—Metropolitan Magazine.
”... Romantic literature does not supply instances of wonderful escape more marvellous.... The book is manifestly a mixture of fact and fiction, yet it gives, we have every reason to believe, a true picture of a settler’s life in that country; and is thickly interspersed with genuine and useful information.”—Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal.
“The contents of the first volume surpass in interest many of the novels of Sir Walter Scott.”—Westminster Review.
“An exceedingly lively and interesting narrative, which affords a more striking view of the habits of emigrant colonial life than all the regular treatises, statistical returns, and even exploratory tours which we have read.... It combines the fidelity of truth with the spirit of a romance, and has altogether so much of De Foe in its character and composition, that whilst we run we learn, and, led along by the variety of the incidents, become real ideal settlers in Van Diemen’s Land.”—Literary Gazette.
SECOND SERIES OF TALES OF THE COLONIES.
THE BUSHRANGER OF VAN DIEMEN’S LAND.
By C. Rowcroft, Esq., Author of “Tales of the Colonies.” In 3 vols. post 8vo. price 1l. 11s. 6d.
“These volumes have the same qualities that gained so much popularity for the Author’s previous work ‘Tales of the Colonies.’ No one has depicted colonial life, as manifested in the settlements of Australia, with so much vigour and truth as Mr Rowcroft. He rather seems to be a narrator of actual occurrences than an inventor of imaginary ones. His characters, his manners, and his scenes are all real. He has been compared to De Foe, and the comparison is just.”—Britannia.
“These volumes form a second series of ‘Tales of the Colonies,’ and the pages are marked by the same vigorous and graphic pen which procured such celebrity for the first series. The interest, generally well sustained throughout, is occasionally of the most absorbing and thrilling kind. Altogether, there is a freshness about these volumes which brings them out in strong contrast to the vapid productions with which the press is teeming.”—Globe.
“The story contains all the merits of the ‘Tales or the Colonies’ as regards style; being simple and Crusoite, if we might use the term, in its narrative. Mr. Rowcroft possesses invention to an extraordinary degree, in the manner in which he manages the escapes of the bushranger,—and he produces, by the simplest incidents, most interesting scenes;—pictures of nature and of a society totally different from anything to be found elsewhere.”—Weekly Chronicle.