AustLit

Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing

Henry Ling Roth (1855-1925) was an anthropologist, author, museum-curator, and member of the influential Roth family. His Crozet's Voyage to Tasmania, New Zealand the Ladrone Islands, and the Philippines in the years 1771-1772 is an account of Marion de Fresne’s’s 1771 voyage—known as Crozet’s journey—to the colonies in the early 1770s that was translated and edited by Roth in 1891. With a preface by Jas. R. Boosé, librarian of the Colonial Institute, this illustrated work included a map of Crozet's voyage and ethnographic sketches. The text was written in first person by Crozet, however the contents page and annotations are authored by Roth, giving the narrative an historical context. Crozet’s journey predominantly concerned New Zealand, although it included a description of Van Diemen’s Land and the island’s Aboriginal community. Roth also authored The Aborigines of Tasmania (1890).