The Governor's Noble Guest: Hyacinthe de Bougainville's Account Of Port Jackson, 1825

Baron Hyacinthe de Bougainville was the son of the famous French Pacific navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. Like his father he was an officer of the French navy and in 1825 he commanded an expedition which took the ships Thetis and Esperance to Macau, Manila and New South Wales.This book is a translation of the private diaries kept by the Baron during his stay in New South Wales. In the diaries he recorded both his reactions to the society of the colony and his observations on some of its leading figures, among whom were Governor Brisbane; the explorers Hume, Hovell, Blaxland and Oxley; John Macarthur, Samuel Marsden and John Piper. The diaries also contain de Bougainville's records of private comments these dignitaries made about one another, thus providing for the reader not only insights into the major personalities of the colony but also hitherto unpublished information about the administrative structures of New South Wales at this time.De Bougainville also gives detailed descriptions of expeditions to the Blue Mountains, Emu Plains, Cow Pastures, Windsor, Parramatta, Liverpool and other localities.