One can safely assume that prior to the establishment of the first newspaper, the E.P. Herald, in Port Elizabeth in 1845, and before the establishment of Port Elizabeth as a borough in July 1860, very little historical information was formally recorded. In their endeavours to earn a living in a town without facilities, recording history took a low priority in their lives. Until that time, it was visitors and travellers who recorded their observations of the town. Most of them were not complimentary about it but that is the only source of information of this nascent town.

In this blog, it is the journal maintained by the Assistant Surgeon on the ship, the Falcon, which forms the basis of William Dunn’s observations of the town. They are trenchant and incisive, unflattering in their candour but were no different from those of many an observer from that period.

Main picture: Port Elizabeth in February 1835 painted by Charles Michell. The Inn at which Gunn and his fellow mariners shared breakfast is the large building on the hill