Description:

FIRST FLEET & BOTANY BAY: THE LONDON CHRONICLE

May 28-30, 1789: This edition of the newspaper contains an account of life in the Colony written by a woman. It is headed "The following Letter from Port Jackson, dated Nov.14, 1788 is written by a Female Pen."

"I take the first opportunity that has been given us, to acquaint you with our disconsolate situation in this solitary waste of the creation......However, we have now two streets, if four rows of the most miserable huts you can possibly conceive of, deserve that name..."

The first published account of life in Sydney by a woman, and a letter of some descriptive power: 'every one is so taken up with their own misfortunes, that they have no pity to bestow upon others.' First-hand accounts by women of the earliest phase of European settlement are very scarce.