Thomas Pamphlet, Richard Parsons, & John Finnegan
This story would have to be one a personal favourites. Here we have three characters with more alcohol than water, on the open sea, taking up the new life moving timber around the Five Islands by open sailboat. Their personalities really begin to show right from the start. Pamphlet being the calm hero, Parsons being the "violent, passionate man", and Finnegan being the lazy, unreliable, third-wheel. This, as most people would agree, spells a recipe for disaster, but together they achieve what most explorers would only dream of.
Sources
This section consists mostly to the castaways' story, "Narrative of Thomas Pamphlet"(4), as told to John Uniacke and published in Barron Field's book.
Field's version of the narrative has evidently been redrafted from a manuscript in the Mitchel Library, B1431, and the manuscript is quoted here in footnotes whenever it appears to be more accurate. This manuscript has been printed in J.G. Steele, "Pamphlet, Uniacke and Field", Queensland Heritage, II, no. 3 (November, 1970), 3-14, where its relation to Field's version is discussed at some length.
Two descriptions of native fights, also taken down by Uniacke, have also been presented in this section. These descriptions appeared first as part of Uniacke's "Narrative of Mr. Oxley's Expedition", also published in Barron Field's book. An account of the adventures of Parsons up to the time of his rescue in Semptember 1824. It is taken from the Australian, 21 October 1824.
Paragraphing
I've put in paragraph spacing in places that aren't in the original manuscript. This is to make the article easier to read online. To obtain a original copy of the Narrative read J.G Steele's The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District: 1770-1830(1). His footnotes and comments about this narrative are quite interesting and greatly helped with my own understanding.
Content Warning
SEQ History advises that some of the content in these article contain graphic descriptions of violence and cannibalism. SEQ History recommends that the content is not suitable for those under the age of 15 years old, and should not be read without the approval of a parent or legal guardian.
