AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

James Inglis (1845-1908) (who occasionally wrote under the name "Maori") was an author, merchant and politician. He provided a commentary on Australian life in his 1880 Our Australian Cousins. Inglis prefaced the work with the statement that his motivation was to satisfy the questioning of friends in India and England. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Inglis, “in 1877 he left Calcutta commissioned by the Alahabad Pioneer Mail to write on the Australian colonies as 'a field for Anglo-Indian capital'.” The book therefore worked as both an emigrant guide and a travel narrative which described the colonies of Queensland and New South Wales, focusing on customs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, comments on society, fishing, and politics, as well as advice to the newcomer and autobiographical anecdotes. The work was written in a conversational manner, which was particularly evident when focused on his own experiences.