Author(s): Chrissie Michaels

Teen True Stories

Almost one year ago I arrived in this colony on board an English transport. I am to leave on board a French Discovery ship ... In the Geographe's Great Cabin glass-cased insects and plant specimens cluttered every nook and cranny. At the long oak table the Commander sat writing in the ship's log. The black flourishing of his words, strange mark on mark, were imaginings of a journey I could not fathom. Mary Beckith, convicted for theft, is transported for life to the colony of New South Wales. She is determined to take charge of her own destiny by whatever means she can. But she does not reckon on the most powerful people in the colony making decisions that will alter her live forever. Her fate is to be linked to two extraordinary explorers - Nicholas Baudin and Matthew Flinders - and their marvellous Voyages of Discovery.