On Christmas Day, 1818, the tiny Naval Cutter Mermaid, under the command of Lieut. Phillip Parker King, sailed through Sydney Heads en route to Tasmania, where King intended to survey the newly discovered harbours of Port Davey and Macquarie Harbour. On board were two passengers, the botanist Allan Cunningham, employed to collect plants for the King's Garden at Kew, near London, and Justice Barron Field, the recently appointed Supreme Court Judge of New South Wales, visiting Tasmania for the first sitting of the Supreme Court in that colony.Although Cunningham and Field were very different in personality and social standing, their lives intertwined for the next 20 years, in a number of ways. This interaction provides an interesting vignette of life in colonial Australia in the early 1800s, and of the close links of the colony with the home country.This book describes, from his own journals, Cunningham's exploration of the vicinity of Hobart, including an ascent of Mount Wellington, and of Macquarie Harbour, where he was the first to collect scientific specimens of Huon Pine, among many other plants new to science. The lives of Cunningham and Field, as well as a number of others involved in the expedition, particularly the Master's Mate of the Mermaid, John Septimus Roe, and the commander, Phillip Parker King, are described. Roe's description of the ascent of Mount Wellington, from letters to his father, provides a counterpoint to Cunningham's account. Many of Cunningham's original collections survive in museums and herbaria around the world, and the book includes a summary of these, providing a powerful illustration of the lasting value of the work of this pioneering botanist.