AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

Henry Capper (1804-1866) worked as a senior clerk for the South Australian Colonization Commission (est. 1834), which controlled early land sales in the colony. Capper became a prolific writer of emigrant guides and associated literature: beginning with guides to South Australia, his later publications covered all Australian colonies, New Zealand, and South Africa. He was the editor of Australia and New Zealand monthly magazine and The South Australian Record, and published Capper’s Colonial Calendar. South Australia: Extracts From the Official Dispatches provided extracts from the official correspondence of Colonel Light and letters from settlers to substantiate his description of South Australia. Capper argued that these documents were evidence that the colony of South Australia had realised the hopes and expectations of the originators of the colony, and that it was an appropriate colony for emigration.