Augustus Prinsep (31 March 1803 – 10 October 1830) was an English artist, writer, and civil servant. He is best known for his posthumous book, ''The Journal of a Voyage from Calcutta to Van Diemen's Land''.

Life

Prinsep, born in London, was the eighth and youngest son of Sophia Elizabeth Auriol (1760–1850) and John Prinsep. He was educated at

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia **Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an international ...

. He went to India, arriving in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in July 1822. He worked as a clerk with the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

in Calcutta. In 1827 he was promoted to commissioner of Pergunnah Palamow. He married Elizabeth Acworth Ommanney in June 1828. He was diagnosed with consumption and advised by his doctors to leave India. He decided to emigrate to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, recording his travels in his journal and letters to his wife. He reached Hobart,

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...

(Tasmania) in September 1829 via

Batavia, Dutch East Indies Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the Ommelanden, which included the much-larger area of the Residency ...

(Indonesia). He died at sea on a further voyage made in the hope of recuperating his health, and his wife published his journal as a book, ''The Journal of a Voyage from Calcutta to Van Diemen's Land''. ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' commented that "This is the pleasantest ''little'' book we have lately received concerning foreign parts. Its form is unpretending; its price is next to nothing; but it is full of matter, and the author was a man of no mean authority in the East." It described his report as "peculiarly valuable" since he was "a thoroughly impartial observer". Elizabeth also published 11 lithographs to accompany the book, probably mostly engraved from drawings by Augustus, the rest from drawings by Elizabeth Prinsep and Thomas Prinsep, another of his brothers.

Works

''The Journal of a Voyage from Calcutta to Van Diemen's Land: Comprising a Description of that Colony During a Six Months' Residence. From Original Letters, Selected by Mrs A. Prinsep''
Smith, Elder, And Co., 1833.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prinsep, Augustus 1803 births 1830 deaths English travel writers 19th-century British non-fiction writers English male non-fiction writers 19th-century male writers Writers from London