1788 - W. Tench

This is a first-hand account of the UK’s colonization of Australia. It is all in all an interesting read, it is particularly fascinating to read of some forms of distress and discomfort that we have more or less banished in the industrialized world - food scarcity, having to explore terrain by foot, a trip which lasts anywhere from three to fifteen months depending on the weather along the way - and this stated more or less as matter of fact, and it was not that long ago.

I really like this description of (in a sense) the very first contact:

In running along shore we cast many an anxious eye towards the land on which so much of our future destiny depended. Our distance, joined to the haziness of the atmosphere, prevented us, however, from being able to discover much. With our best glasses we could see nothing but hills of a moderate height, clothed with trees, to which some little patches of white sandstone gave the appearance of being covered with snow. Many fires were observed on the hills in the evening.

After this paragraph the topic somehow changes, and the “many fires” remain lingering there.

I also found it interesting that the author (an official of the British Empire) has some views which some would see as progressive today:

The first step in every community which wishes to preserve honesty should be to set the people above want.

Here is a very British footnote:

Their general favourite term of reproach is gonin-patta, which signifies ‘an eater of human excrement’. Our language would admit a very concise and familiar translation. They have, besides this, innumerable others which they often salute their enemies with.

Here is something we would not find written in the same way today:

My observation on this extreme heat, succeeded by so rapid a change, were that of all animals, man seemed to bear it best.

There is a conviction that transpires here and there in the text - humans are animals like all others, ascended to a higher order through civilization, must take care not to slip from there and fall in the previous state again. I feel that nowadays, born and raised in completely artificial societies, we forget how easily we could fall back in a primal state, and behave as if it were impossible - even, unthinkable. It was not always like this and I think it is very risky not to have this somewhere in the back of our heads.