1800 GOTTFRIED BAUMANN CO. - Two fanciful views of Botany Bay with English and French settlements.

Copper engraving with four scenes and one portrait of Frederick III of Saxony on one sheet. In the upper part fanciful views of Botany Bay with English and French settlements. In the lower part, English settles. According to the title, Botany Bay was a destination for English and French convicts.

Published in "Allgemeine Welt-Chronik oder neue und wichtige Zeit-Geschichte aller Länder und Völker.".
Very rare.

After James Cook's famous voyage to the South Pacific in which he visited and claimed the east coast of Australia in the name of the British Empire, he reported Botany Bay, a bay in modern-day Sydney, as being the ideal place to establish a settlement. By 1788, the First Fleet arrived and the first British colony in Australia was established.
During the late 18th and 19th centuries, large numbers of convicts were transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government.
Early convicts were all sent to Botany Bay, but by the early 1800s, they were also being sent directly to other locations. The main destinations were Botany Bay, Norfolk Island, Van Diemen's Land, Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay.

One of the primary reasons for the British settlement of Australia was the establishment of a penal colony to alleviate pressure on their overburdened correctional facilities. Over the 80 years, more than 165,000 convicts were transported to Australia.

The number of convicts pales in comparison to the immigrants who arrived in Australia in the 1851–1871 gold rush. In 1852 alone, 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia. By 1871 the total population had nearly quadrupled from 430,000 to 1.7 million people.
The last convicts to be transported to Australia arrived in Western Australia in 1868.

More about the Mapping of Australia [+]

In the lower part a portrait of Frederick III of Saxony (17 January 1463 – 5 May 1525), also known as Frederick the Wise, who was Elector of Saxony (from the House of Wettin) from 1486 to his death.
He is notable for being one of the most powerful early defenders of Martin Luther, Lutheranism, and the Protestant Reformation. His court painter since 1504 was Lucas Cranach the Elder.