AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

William Kingdom's America and the British Colonies. An Abstract of all the Most Useful Information is a detailed overview of the advantages, disadvantages, and prospects of the colonies of New York, Canada, the Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Island. It includes the prices of provisions, official documents on the subject of emigration, agricultural information, the price of labour, climate, and more general observations. The contents note that some of this information were extracted from other reference works (by Ross, and by Mann). The preface informed readers that "The information contained in the following pages was principally collected by the author last Autumn, for the guidance of a friend and himself, both of whom, at that period, entertained some intention of emigrating" (v).