An old friend of the public’s, Mr. William Howitt, who has been himself to Australia, and whose son has made a name for himself there in the history of exploration, now adds one more to the number of the histories of “Discovery in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.” His book, a history in two octavo volumes, begins at the beginning and brings down its story to the present day. It is a story that will bear many a telling, and who will not gladly hear it told by William Howitt in sympathy with the strong interest he feels in it, of which he writes, “Having had one son engaged in these researches in Australia, as the successful discoverer of the lost expedition of Burke and Wills, and the recoverer of their remains, and having lost another in assisting to open up the interior of New Zealand, he has entered on the undertaking as a labour of love.” Such a book from his hands cannot fail to be attractive.
Examiner, April 22, 1865.
Nowhere else, in the history of modern discovery,—save in those Arctic explorations which have had for chief promoters more than one man schooled to hardship and perseverance in this southern field of adventure,—was there so much room for unflinching heroism, with such abundance of dangers to be overcome and substantial victories to be gained over the treacherous elements. Names like those of Oxley, Cunningham, King, Grey, Eyre, Sturt, Stuart, Burke, and Wills have, in the annals of the present century, a dignity akin to that which makes the lives of Willoughby and Frobisher, Gilbert, Raleigh, and a crowd of others, illustrious in Tudor history. Best known, and noblest of all, is the story of the disastrous expedition of Burke and Wills in 1860 and 1861, followed, while the fate of the missing adventurers was unknown, by several memorable journies in quest of them. Two of these, undertaken by Mr. McKinlay and Mr. Landsborough, have been described in recent publications. Two others, led by Mr. Howitt’s own son, are here for the first time made known in detail.
Observer, April 16, 1865.
This book contains a most complete and faithful summary of the various discoveries that have been made in Australia during the last 260 years, commencing with those made by the Portuguese in the north west of Australia before the discovery of the north of Australia by the Dutch in 1605. It shows, however, that even these early navigators were not the first discoverers; and that it is difficult to decide how long Australia had been previously known to the Chinese. In fact indications exist from the most remote antiquity of unrecorded voyages, which led the ancients to speak of countries lying beyond the regions of any positive knowledge then remaining, and our author cites the passage from Mænilius, who lived in the time of Tiberius or Augustus, in which the rotundity of the earth and the existence of antipodes were distinctly referred to.
Literary Gazette, June 10, 1865.
We are greatly impressed with the value of this work, and cannot doubt but that it will take rank as a standard authority on all that pertains to the history of our trans-Pacific possessions. Maps of Australia, Van Diemen’s Land, and New Zealand, compiled from official and authentic information, accompany the volumes, which abound in pictures new and strange, and contain a large number of facts illustrative of countries which seem destined to become centres of a new and extensive civilization.
Australian and New Zealand Gazette, April 20, 1865.
The want of a connected history of the progress of discovery in Australia has long been felt, but we are glad to find that the delay has been amply compensated for in the very excellent work which has just been published by William Howitt, who, in addition to his other literary claims, has the advantage of not only being personally connected with the colonies, but also with the subject, for his sons enjoy a conspicuous position in the illustrious phalanx of Australian explorers. In conclusion, we can only say that Mr. Howitt is entitled to the best thanks of the public, both at home and in the colonies, for the manner in which he has executed his task.
Morning Advertiser, April 17, 1865.