George Henry Wathen

This resulted in a short paper published in 1853 by the Geological Society of London, which was followed by his second book, The Golden Colony, or Victoria in 1854, which again was sparsely illustrated with some of his own sketches.

Despite his lack of training as either a geologist or mining engineer, the release of the Golden Colony was perfectly timed to capitalise on the excitement of both the Australian and Californian gold rushes, and it was widely read by "arm-chair adventurers" in both England and the United States.

Dickens politely wrote back to Thompson in a 27 June 1851 letter that though the Australasian was "a most creditable production, it would be more encouraging if the articles were honestly purchased, rather than pirated."

[3] Wathen returned to England in 1854 to marry, and then brought his wife in 1857 to South Africa, where he acquired land near Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal, built the "Deepdene" homestead, became a sheep rancher, and raised a family.

He settled first in urban Wandsworth, Surrey, then at the small resort town of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, but generally spent his winters in southern France, and in Italy, where he died 10 November 1879 in the parish of Viareggio, Lucca in Tuscany, buried there in a Protestant cemetery.