An Explorer at Rest Ludwig Leichhardt Journals

Ludwig Leichhardt at Port Essington and on the homeward voyage 1845-1846

Introduction and annotations by E. M. Webster

Melbourne University Press, 1986 [First Edition], illustrated with b/w plates, hardcover, dustjacket, ISBN 0522843220

As New Condition, a little edgewear to top of dustjacket

'Never before published, this short journal covers Ludwig Leichhardt's brief sojourn at Port Essington (Northern Territory) after his overland expedition of 1844-45, then the return journey to Sydney on board the schooner Heroine.  Leichhardt emerges as a well-educated and insatiably curious young man of his times: anyone less like the 'demonic' figure of our modern mythologizers is difficult to imagine.

The description of Port Essington is of historical interest and demonstrates the settlement's influence among the Aborigines.  The voyage of the Heroine under Captain McKenzie narrates one of the earliest west-east passages through Torres Strait.  

Leichhardt gives us a first-hand account of what it was really like in the north of Australia over a century ago.  Anyone interested in the area simply must read it.'