‘My Own Slender Remarks'

This chapter explores Mary Ann Parker's perceptions of the land and indigenous people's of New Holland as they are framed by contemporary discussions of slavery, hospitality and sociability, and in the context of the writer's 'voyage around the world'. The long history of Terra Australis describes a space sketched in lines of speculation, ambition and multiple desires. Mary Ann Parker sails for New South Wales with a sense of trepidation, buttressed by her conviction of the critical importance of the Gorgon's mission. The Gorgon's itinerary captures a specific dimension of this global movement of ideas, mapping the multiple locations and reference points for Parker's representations. Her earliest encounter with the Botany Bay convicts is haunted by an uneasy conjunction of transportation and slavery. An even more intriguing and uncanny figure for the collapsing topographies of the colonial world crossed by Parker is the large shark caught and brought aboard the Gorgon on their return voyage through the South Atlantic.