The Precarious Life of James Mario Matra: Voyager with Cook, American Loyalist, Servant of Empire

In August 1768, James Mario Matra, the 22-year-old son of an American loyalist, sailed with Captain Cook to unknown parts of the world. The voyage, fraught with danger and uncertainty, marked the beginning of what was to be, in many ways, a precarious life. On the Endeavour's return in 1771, Matra anonymously published the first major account of Cook's voyage. He never saw New Holland again, but his significant role in the history of the settlement of Australia was not yet ended. When the American War of Independence deprived Matra of his family inheritance, the Endeavour's celebrated naturalist, Sir Joseph Banks, helped get Matra employment as an official in various foreign outposts. In this capacity he turned his mind to ways of promoting Britain's global commercial network. Having personally felt the loss of one British colony, he conceived a plan to found another. In 1783 he proposed a British settlement in new South Wales to "atone for the loss of our American colonies." The settlement would give asylum to dispossessed American loyalists and would be built on the labor of young convicts. Matra offered to be its "Conductor and Governor." The Pitt administration concurred with Matra's proposal but declined to offer him the government of the intended colony. Instead he was given the post of Consul at Tangier, where he remained until his death in 1806. This book blends Matra's extensive and colorful correspondence with a biographical narrative to reveal for the first time the life and influence of this mysterious figure.