Nathaniel Hailes was a wry chronicler of early colonial South Australia. He arrived in Adelaide from England in 1839 and throughout his colourful career witnessed many strange and wonderful happenings. A courageous lone traveller, he got to know the Aboriginal people of the regions, upped of the first illicit still in the colony; saw fire destroy Adelaide's first Government House; became well-acquainted with some of the colony's first murders and executions; and at different times worked as Superintendent of Emigrants, auctioneer, the first librarian in the State, Clerk of the Court, Clerk to the Government Resident, Registrar, Harbourmaster and Postmaster. Hailes' witty and affectionate Recollections appeared in the South Australian Register newspaper in 1878. They are here for the first time in book form.