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: Containing Hints to Emigrants… provides a general history of South Australia, its position and description, an account of Adelaide, and notes on the climate, natural productions, progress of the colony, and principles of colonisation, as well as hints aimed at emigrants. The work concluded with an extensive appendix that contained information on regulations for the sale of land, regulations for the selections of emigrant labourers, a note to experienced farmers possessing limited capital, and information on self-supporting emigration. In the preface to the second edition Capper noted that the first was only a rough sketch from which the outlines of a more finished piece were published. The third edition titled Capper's South Australia containing the History of the Rise, Progress and Present State of the Colony. Hints to Emigrants, and a Variety of Useful and Authentic Information (1839) included three maps that showed the city of Adelaide, the Surveyed Districts of Adelaide and Encounter Bay, and a map of the Maritime Portion of Located Districts