Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth, 1787 March 22-1789 August [manuscript]

Arthur Bowes Smyth (1750-1790), surgeon, was born in Essex. In 1787, he was appointed as surgeon responsible for the women convicts on the "Lady Penrhyn" in the First Fleet. Importantly, he kept a diary from 22 March 1787 to 8 August 1789 under the name of Arthur Bowes, A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to New South Wales and China in the Lady Penrhyn. In his writings Smyth puts a human face to the convicts as well as revealing his interest in natural history, the collection of specimens and drawing, including the earliest existing depiction by a European of an emu. In April 1788, Smyth returned to England on the "Lady Penrhyn" via Lord Howe Island, Tahiti, China and St Helena. On Lord Howe Island, he made the earliest drawing of the now extinct white gallinule, and observed the currawong (or bell magpie) and four now rare or extinct birds, namely, the Lord Howe pigeon, the booby, the Lord Howe rail or woodhen and an extinct species of parakeet.