A Victorian engagement : letters and journals of Walter Hume and Anna Kate Fowler during the 1860s

PREFACE n MY GRANDFATHER, Walter Cunningham Hume, tooknto the sea in his early teens when his father diednprematurely in 1851. Six years later, after variousnadventures (he survived the Croesus disaster), he hadnachieved the rank of 5th Officer in P. a O. ships plyingnbetween Southampton and Alexandria. By 1862 he hadnrisen to the rank of 2nd Officer and had obtained anMaster's ticket, a commendable achievement for anyoung man of twenty-two. Becoming dissatisfied howevernwith his prospects in the P. a O., he decided tonemigrate to Queensland. This project he called his AustraliannScheme.n n He put the Australian Scheme into practice in 1863.nOn arrival in Queensland he established himself as ansurveyor in the Crown Lands Office. Three years laternhe proposed to Anna Kate Fowler by post and thenfollowing year, namely in the summer of 1866, shentravelled alone in the clipper barque Alfred Hawleyn(Captain Almond) to Brisbane to marry him. Thenvoyage took ninety days non-stop. When they werenfinally reunited, she had not seen him for four years.n n To assist the reader to understand the extracts fromnletters and journals which follow, some notes about thenbackgrounds of our two protagonists may be appropriate.nFor the sake of convenience we will call them Walter and Katie, the names by which they were knovmnto each otherhh.nn