Tells the story of what happened between British settlers of NSW and the Australian inhabitants they found there. Using reports, journals and letters Clendinnen applies her eye to the key events in the tragic arc of dispossession and looks at the personalities involved: such men as Arthur Phillp, Bennelong and diarist Watkin Tench. It offers a fresh reading of reports, letters and journals of British participants to reconstruct the difficult path to friendship and conciliation pursued by Arthur Phillip and the local leader Bennelong; and then traces the painful destruction of that hard-won friendship as profound cultural differences asserted themselves.