A Boy's Voyage Round the World

Sent to Australia at sixteen to recover his health, Samuel Smiles's youngest son turned a long sea passage and an extended stay abroad into a record of everyday discoveries. His logs and letters, arranged for publication by his father, describe sailing from England, arriving in Melbourne and taking work in a bank at Majorca, a township in Victoria's gold-mining district. Shipboard amusements, rough weather, bush scenery and local social gatherings give the account its varied subjects.

The goldfields supply stories of uncertain fortunes as well as descriptions of work. In one passage, a digger recounts how a claim abandoned by others yielded a valuable find; another links his first nugget to a dream. The planned return route passes through Honolulu and San Francisco, then across America by rail. Readers interested in nineteenth-century travel and Australian settlement will find a young correspondent's observations alongside the stories he hears from his neighbours.