AustLit

Dedication: To My Father

'In The Straitsmen, 1929, Williams preserves some of the romantic traditions that have gathered round the islands between Wilson's Promontory and the north-east coast of Tasmania. Thither he gathers a concourse of pirates, sealers, ex-convicts, and adventurers. Into their midst he introduces two outcast sons of Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Peru, who came there via Sydney. A group of straitsmen take the lads back to Peru, where they meet their parents and serve with the revolutionary army. The straitsmen continue on their way, despoiling wherever and whenever they can, and ultimately return to the islands. Bolivar and his wife are among the characters, and there are references to Governor King, Captain Campbell, George Bass, and Lieutenant Robbins. The story has also connections with Tasmanian convicts and Tasmanian shipping. Along with Jorgensen, John Batman appears as a character, seeking information for a settlement. (E. Morris Miller Australian Literature From Its Beginnings to 1935 (1940): 747).