AustLit

Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing

James Rattray (1790-1862) humbly dedicated his travel narrative Round and Round, and In the World, as well as his "vagrant pen", to Samuel Smiles, Scottish author and government reformer. In the preamble, Rattray stated that his motivation for writing this narrative was the duty he felt to instruct youths and inexperienced readers of travel, and to guide people against the failures and disappointments of life. In his description of a global tour that extended from Australia to Africa, Rattray commented on the negative representation of the Australian colonies in the English press. The work was presented in a conversational and descriptive first-person narrative, with Rattray predominantly discussing Melbourne and Sydney. Rattray also wrote The costumes of the various tribes, portraits of ladies of rank, celebrated princes and chiefs, views of the principal fortresses and cities, and interior of the cities and temples of Afghaunistaun (1848).