AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

English translator, mining engineer, and writer, Alexander James Duffield (1823-1890), wrote his Recollections of Travel Abroad 36 years after his global travels. They are written in the first person, in a novelistic style that recorded conversations and events. Duffield travelled through South America to Australia, and then returned to Canada via New Zealand, South America, the United States, and Europe. While in Australia, he discussed the goldfields, the progress of the colonies, industry and agriculture - he had a plan to introduce alpacas to Australia. The majority of this text focussed on countries other than Australia. Duffield also published prolifically in a wide-range of academic and historical fields, including a translation of Don Quixote.