AustLit

'The novel is based on much of the life story of Joseph Barsden. As a sickly three-month-old infant he escaped being thrown overboard when the new governor's wife Anna Josepha King stepped in and saved him from a watery grave. (The young Joseph's convict mother died on the ship on-route to Van Diemen's Land) He spent his childhood in the shadows of government house and later goes to sea as a sandalwood trade where he jumps ship and ends up in Tahiti and becomes involved in the Tahitian civil war 1815 at the battle of Fei pi. From these humble beginnings he changed the course of history.' (Source : Libraries Australia)