The EXPLORERS
William Stuart Long

When seventeen-year-old Jessica India Maclaine flees from her sadistic stepfather and hides aboard the Hindostan at Portsmouth as it prepares for the voyage to New South Wales, she little realises what fate has in store for her.
   For the infant colony is in turmoil. The deposed Governor, William Bligh, is preparing to leave for England, determined that his enemies will be brought to justice. His successor Lachlan Macquarie -- in whose house Jessica finds employment -- is faced with the task of making New South Wales a self-supporting and prosperous settlement after the havoc wrought by the corrupt Rum Corps. Not the least of his problems is the implacable hostility aroused by his attempts to ensure that emancipated convicts are given the same opportunities as the free settlers.
   Against this background of a young country struggling to find its own identity, William Stuart Long traces the fortunes of Jessica, the adventurous young mariner Justin Broome, his mother Jenny, an ex-convict - and many other characters who are building a future for themselves in a new land. All share the dream of finding new pastureland across the inaccessible Blue Mountains west of the settlement; land without which the new colony may not survive.
   The Explorers, Book Four in William Stuart Long's magnificent series The Australians, follows the story of Australia from 1809 to 1813.