Add MS 47966

JOURNAL OF ARTHUR BOWES al. BOWES-SMYTH, surgeon of the convict transport 'Lady Penrhyn' on a voyage from Portsmouth to Botany Bay, Tahiti, and China, returning to London; 20 Mar. 1787-13 Aug. 1789. The ship was one of those sent to establish the first penal settlement in Australia. The present MS. is an approximately contemporary copy of an autograph fair copy by Bowes, now in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, Australia, of his original rough journal, a microfilm of which is now in the Department, no. RP 279. At the beginning (f. 1) is an imperfect 'List of the Fleet', followed (ff. lb-2) by a 'List of Officers station'd at Botany Bay', etc., and (ff. 2b-5b) a 'List of the Female Convicts (on board the Lady Penrhyn) ... with their Crimes, Ages, &c.', and a list. etc., of their children (f. 6). At the end are 'a List of the Number of Miles the Lady Penrhyn has gone' (f. 113) and of 'the number of different Places we Touch'd at', and 'References to remarkable passages in this Manuscript'(ff. 114-115). The body of the journal includes lists of the ship's company, passengers, etc. (ff. 6b, 9) and of ships at Whampoa (ff. 80-81b), and wash drawings of Tenerife (f. 7), the island of Mayo (f. 8b), 'The land about Rio de Janeiro' (f. 19), the Cape of Good Hope (f. 27), 'The tree at Botany Bay which yields a Yellow Balsam & of a Wigwam' (f. 37b), 'The Kangaroo' (f. 39), Grafton Island (f. 77b), a dorado, in colour (f. 106), and a variety of swordfish (f. 107b), and a pencil drawing of a plant (f. 85). Ff. 98 and 116 comprise press-cuttings relating to Saint Helena, Oct. 1815. The copy of the journal in the Mitchell Library has been used, and extracts printed, by G. Mackaness, Admiral Arthur Phillip, Sydney, 1937, M. B. Eldershaw, Phillip of Australia, 1938, C. Bateson, The Convict Ships, 1787-1868, 1959, and J. Cobley, Sydney Cove, 1788, 1962. The original journal is described in F. Edwards, Ltd., The Original Bowes Smyth Manuscript of His Voyage to Australia, 1787-1789, 1964 (Departmental pamphlet no. 1505), and in L. D. Feldman, cat. no. 70, 1969, item 6. Paper; ff. i+ 116. Large quarto. XVIII-XIX centt. The spine of an old binding is lettered 'Smyth's Voyage'. Presented by A. 0. Edwards, Esq.