In an Unknown Prison Land / An account of convicts and colonists in New Caledonia with jottings out and home

A travel narrative that moves from North American scenes to the Pacific and then concentrates on New Caledonia as a penal and colonial society, blending landscape description with reportage on prisons, disciplinary camps, and island settlements. It records institutional details such as inspections, medical and anthropometric procedures, punishments and reforms, and everyday routines of convicts, colonists, and officials. The account also notes public life in ports and towns, economic activities in timber and iron, health hazards like mosquitoes and disease, and broader reflections on exile, rehabilitation, and the colony’s mixed, cosmopolitan character during the author’s return.