Thomas Horton James

Thomas Horton James arrived in South Australia in January 1838, already at that time a dissension-torn province. He was not impressed. The passengers had to walk through mud from the boat to dry land, and then to Adelaide if, as was usual, no bullock cart was available.

On arrival 'They step across the "Torrens" without knowing it, and enquire for the Inn'. James spent a lot of his time at the Southern Cross Hotel. Although he did not visit Port Lincoln, he considered its harbour superior to that of Port Adelaide. In Adelaide ‘Half the people you see have got bad eyes', he complained. 'The squares are all on such a scale of magnitude, that if there were any inhabitants in them, a cab would almost be required to get across them'.

James’s account of his three-and-a-half-months in South Australia — expansively entitled Six months in South Australia — is a rambling, disorganised, jaunty and entertaining glimpse of the colony’s tentative beginnings.

Included in it are the brief journals of some private expeditions in South Australia which inspired a leading antiquarian bookseller, Jonathan Wantrup to say, 'Every exploration library should include a copy'.

Introduction by Valmai Hankel.
RRP Deluxe $121 Standard $77