The prolific writer William Howitt (1792–1879) embarked for Australia in 1852 and spent two years there travelling and panning for gold. His experiences resulted in several books that appealed to the Victorian public's avid interest in Antipodean exploration. Published in 1865, when New Zealand had only been recognised as a country for a generation, this two-volume work describes 'scenes of danger and of wild romance, of heroic daring and devoted deaths, such as few countries have to show'. It gives a valuable account of early European exploration and settlement in Australia and New Zealand as well as insights into European travellers' responses to this previously unknown continent. Volume 1 covers the period to the 1840s, including the voyages of Tasman, Cook and Darwin. Volume 2 focuses on the 1861 disappearance of Burke and Wills in Australia, and visits to New Zealand by explorers including Charles Heaphy and Julius Haast.