Following the Equator: Chapter X

Submitted by scott on Tue, 10/28/2014 - 09:16
New South Wales Corps

Not about his travels but about the initial colonization of Australia with English convicts and their harsh treatment with the cat-o-nine-tails.  The British colony founded by Captain Cook in 1770 and the establishment of the Australian and Tasmanian penal colonies.  Twain then goes on to the corrupt "protection" organization, the New South Wales Corps and the setting of rum as the national currency.  The state of New South Wales, by the establishment of mining and wool ranching,  eventually developed into a thriving region.

Following the Equator: Chapter IX

Submitted by scott on Fri, 10/24/2014 - 10:23
View in Sydney Harbor

September 15th, the Warrimoo approaches Sydney harbor.  Twain relates the story of the ship, the Dunbar  (Twain refers to the ship as the Duncan Dunbar which was actually a different ship), breaking up on the rocks at the harbor entrance in 1857.  Twain writes of the beauty of Sydney but Australia's interior brings to mind Nevada's dust storms, the Zephyrs.

Following the Equator: Chapter VIII

Submitted by scott on Sun, 10/19/2014 - 12:41
Off Goes His Head

Twain become acquainted with an English naturalist who lives in New Zealand and learns of the natural history of Australasia, particularly the platypus, Ornithorhyncus. 

William T. Wawn's First Voyage aboard the schooner Stanley

Submitted by scott on Mon, 10/13/2014 - 20:52
Recruiting At Manno Kwoi, Malayta I

William T. Wawn, Master Mariner and captain of the schooner Stanley, was a capitalist and capitalism treats everything as a commodity including people. The dedication in his book, The South Seas Islanders and the Queensland Labour Trade provides an excellent illustration of just what his biases are: