One of Nordhoff/Hall’s less recognized novels, Botany Bay deserves better attention. It seems almost of the time (1831) from which it looks back over the events of the life of Hugh Tallant, an American caught up in poverty in England and sentenced to transportation to Australia (New South Wales). Its atmosphere in London is almost Dickensian. And the time detailing the founding of Sydney reads like an adventure story akin to James Finemore Cooper’s.