Separately published map of Tasmania.

The map details the early settlement of Tasmania. To the lower right is a brief history of the island from: its discovery by the Dutch explorer Tasman in 1644 and subsequent naming of the island Van Dieman’s Land after the then Dutch Governor General of India; through to its charting and eventual colonization by the British at the start of the nineteenth century. The text goes on to eulogise about Hobart which is ‘a well planned, and neat town… and the beauty and the magnificence of the surrounding scenery, cannot be surpassed by many places, in the world’; the climate is also ‘very congenial to Europeans, probably more so than any other spot on the globe, the Seasons not being subject to great extremes of heat or cold’ and just when you thought this arcadian vision could not get any better, ‘The country is beautifully picturesque, and the plains very extensive, affording most excellent pasturage at all seasons’.

Unfortunately the settlement of this southern arcadia would come at a great cost to the aboriginal population. Tensions had been steadily growing between the settlers and the indigenous population ever since the first colony at Ridson Cove in 1804; and by the time of the publication of the map the so called ‘Black War’ was about to commence, which would decimate the Aboriginal population.