A detailed plan of the region of the first settlement in New South Wales by David Collins, the Judge Advocate for the colony. It accompanied his book entitled ‘An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales’, which was the first official account of the colony. It was published in two volumes in 1798 and 1802. This map appeared in the much rarer second volume of 1802. There are six published accounts of the so-called First Fleet of which this is considered the rarest and most detailed.

David Collins (1756-1810) was born in London to an officer in the marines. Joining himself in 1770 he was sent to the American colonies in 1775 where he fought at Bunker Hill. Following which he accompanied loyalists to Halifax, Nova Scotia. He also took part in the relief of Gibraltar in 1783. He served in New South Wales from January 1788 and August 1796 by which time he had become Governor Arthur Phillip’s confidential secretary. He returned to England in 1795 and began work on his ‘Account’. He returned to Australia in 1803 to establish a new settlement in Bass Strait which was eventually made Hobart, Tasmania. He died there in 1810. The map extends from Broken Bay to beyond Botany Bay and inland to the supposed course of the Nepean River. Ferguson (1975) 350; ODNB; Tooley (1967) 22.