This book contains some of the earliest coloured engravings of European settlement in NSW as well as an early description of aboriginal customs. The author describes traditional Aboriginal rites, rituals, family structures, food security and medical treatment and compares them unfavourably to European lifestyle. The book notes the precarious existence of the settlement and exposes the colony's dependency on the arrival of supply ships from many countries. It outlines the hardships and cruelty of convict life, the ever present hunger and how it impacted behaviour and the brutality shown towards Aboriginal people. More positively it outlines the forward thinking of settlers in animal breeding techniques and agricultural practices both around Sydney and on Norfolk Island.
Barrington, a criminal pick-pocket, had appeared on numerous occasions before magistrates in London resulting in years of incarceration in England. Due largely to his articulate manner, good education and exemplary dress, Barrington gained "folk hero" status in England as much was published about him to an extremely intrigued and readily awaiting public. Eventually his luck deserted him and Barrington was sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing. Publishers in England exploited Barrington's public notoriety to produce books around the popular themes of transportation and the new penal settlement to an eager English audience, long after he arrived in Sydney and after his death in 1804.
