• Title
  Copy of extract of a letter from John MacGillivray to John Gould regarding a voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, ca. February 1850
• Creator
  John Gould, 1804-1881
• Call number
  MLMSS 9630
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  ca. February 1850, transcribed ca. 1850
• Type of material
  Textual Records
• Reference code
  1225991
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder) - manuscript
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Scottish-born John MacGillivray (1821-1867) left England for Australia in December 1846 as a naturalist on board H.M.S. Rattlesnake, commanded by Captain Owen Stanley. The Rattlesnake reached Hobart Town in June 1847 and then proceeded to survey the area between the Queensland coast and the Great Barrier Reef, the southern coast of New Guinea and the Louisiade Archipelago, returning to Sydney between cruises. The Rattlesnake arrived back in England in October 1850 and MacGillivray remained there for two years while writing his ‘Narrative of the voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake’.
  
  Reference:
  Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://adb.anu.edu.au/ (accessed 5 January 2015)
• Scope and Content
  Contemporary copy, by an unknown copyist, of an extract from a letter written by John MacGillivray to the British ornithologist John Gould, originally sent from Sydney and dated 29 February 1850. The letter describes H.M.S. Rattlesnake’s voyage from its departure from Moreton Bay in May 1849 to its return to Sydney in early 1850, and contains considerable ornithological detail. MacGillivray also remarks on the valuable information given to him by a white woman [Barbara Thompson, of Scottish descent] who had lived with an Aboriginal tribe for several years after being shipwrecked off Prince of Wales Island, and who returned to Sydney on the Rattlesnake.
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment - Applies to R 2190
• Copying Conditions
  Copyright status:: In copyright
  Research & study copies allowed: Author has been deceased for more than 50 years
• Finding Aids
  Read the transcription here: acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2015/D33324/c02986.html
• General note
  
  Digital order no:Album ID : 1287053
• Date note
  
  Date written on letter, 29 February 1850, is not a valid date, as 1850 was not a leap year.
• Creator/Author/Artist
  MacGillivray, John, 1821-1867
  
• Name
  Rattlesnake (Ship)
  
• Subject
  Natural history--Australia.
  Natural history--Oceania.
  Naturalists--Australia--Correspondence.
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE1207689

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