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"Backhouse bases his Narratives on journals kept during an evangelical tour of Australia from 1831 to 1838, when he and his companion George Washington Walker, travelled extensively, preaching the gospel, seeking out fellow Quakers, distributing religious tracts and educational material, investigating and reporting on conditions for convicts and Aborigines, promoting the cause of temperance, and interesting themselves and commenting on all aspects of lie in Australia. Travelling mostly on foot and frequently over untracked areas, they visited established centres and isolated settlements. They explored Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales most extensively, particularly the former, but also paid brief visits to the settlements at Moreton Bay, Port Phillip, Adelaide, Albany and Perth" (Walsh and Hooton 16).
Source
Walsh, Kay and Joy Hooton. Australian Autobiographical Narratives : An Annotated Bibliography. Canberra : Australian Scholarly Editions Centre, University College, ADFA and National Library of Australia, 1993.
Affiliation Notes
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19th-Century Australian Travel Writing
James Backhouse (1794–1869), naturalist, humanitarian advocate, and Quaker missionary, wrote a lengthy Narrative that describes in detail his voyage to Van Diemen's Land, Hobart, Sydney, Norfolk Island, Bathurst, Brisbane, and the Swan River, including his travels, religious meetings, views on crime and emigration, the countryside and resources, the indigenous people, geology, and climate, and much more. The work concludes with an appendix of Backhouse's letters to persons of authority, copies of influential reports written in the colonies, and essays on justice and religion. Backhouse was later an editor of The Life and Labours of George Washington Walker (1862), who accompanied him on his travels.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Validating Preferences : Aborigines and the Narratives of Two Missionary Travellers
1998
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Colloquy : Text Theory Critique , Autumn no. 2 1998; (p. 5-15) Analysing the narratives of James Backhouse and R. B. Plowman, Paul Miller concludes that readers need to be aware of the strategies adopted by the two writers 'to validate their preferences'. Readers need to appreciate 'the pool of socio-cultural circumstances that condition' Backhouse and Plowman's preferences. 'What emerges', says Miller, 'are texts with "facts" that are all but transparent and contructions of Aboriginal peoples adapted to affirm the travellers' personal and imperial agendas'.
-
Validating Preferences : Aborigines and the Narratives of Two Missionary Travellers
1998
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Colloquy : Text Theory Critique , Autumn no. 2 1998; (p. 5-15) Analysing the narratives of James Backhouse and R. B. Plowman, Paul Miller concludes that readers need to be aware of the strategies adopted by the two writers 'to validate their preferences'. Readers need to appreciate 'the pool of socio-cultural circumstances that condition' Backhouse and Plowman's preferences. 'What emerges', says Miller, 'are texts with "facts" that are all but transparent and contructions of Aboriginal peoples adapted to affirm the travellers' personal and imperial agendas'.
- Van Diemen's Land (1803-1856), Tasmania,
- New South Wales,
- Norfolk Island, Australian External Territories,
