'In the following Romance,' writes Nisbet in the 1891 F. V. White edition, 'I have brought together a few well-known or historical characters of that land of beauty and tears, at the time when Van Dieman's Land was regarded as the Hades rather than the Garden of Australia. The events herein narrated are supposed to occur during the year 1813, although in reality I have had to compress the actions of several years into the one, but that they actually occurred as I have written them may be proved at a glance through the early records of the colony'
(ix).
Peter Cowan, in 'A Review of Race Relations: Hume Nisbet,' writes that in telescoping the complex of figures and events into a short time period, the author attracted the ire of informed critics who levelled harsh judgements at his falsification of history for dramatic effect. 'General readers appeared to accept the device' however (p.47)
The key figures who feature in the narrative are Mathuna, the Savage Queen (whose tribe was 'once a power in the land'); Governor Davey (the eccentric and blundering, though kind-hearted administrator); John Whitehouse (the native protector); Michael Howe and Mosquito (bushrangers); Samuel Biddle ('the woman-hater') and Miss O'Callighan (the 'sarpint').
- NB: The character Mathuna is drawn from the real-life Aboriginal woman, Truganini, considered to be the last "full blood" Palawa (Tasmanian Aborigine).
