[Rarebooks] fa: A MISSIONARY VOYAGE TO THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN 1799

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, April 28. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/ceh92z7

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[William Wilson:] A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, Performed in the years 1796, 1797, 1798, in the ship Duff, commanded by Captain James Wilson. Compiled from Journals of the Officers and Missionaries; and Illustrated with Maps, Charts, and Views, Drawn by Mr. William Wilson, and engraved by the most eminent Artists. With a Preliminary Discourse on the Geography and History of the South Sea Islands; and an Appendix, Including Details Never Before Published, of the Natural and Civil State of Otaheite; by a Committee Appointed for the Purpose by the Directors of the Missionary Society. London: Printed by S. Gosnell, for T. Chapman, No 151, Fleet Street, 1799. FIRST EDITION, large paper issue; tall 4to (30.5 cm) in early/period calf, rebacked preserving original lettering-piece; [12], c, 420, [12] pp.; subscribers list; 13 engraved plates, maps and charts. ESTC T87461; Hill 1894.

COMPLETE with 7 maps and charts (five folding) and 6 plates. Binding with some modest rubbing and scuffs; scattered light to moderate foxing to the plates and maps, some offsetting to facing text pages, two of the folding maps with closed tears at the folds, a third shaved with loss to the imprint; otherwise quite clean and sound, firmly bound. There was a cheaper, "small paper" edition, printed by Gillet, which appeared in the same year. The present Gosnell edition has 420 pages of main text and 12 pages of subscribers and is listed first by ESTC; the Gillet edition has 395 pages of main text, and only 8 pages of subscribers.

First edition of this official account of the first missionary voyage to the South Pacific. The Duff was sponsored by the London Missionary Society for the purpose of establishing missions at Tahiti, Tonga and the Marquesas. After initial success, the settlers faced increasing difficulties, including a local civil war, and most were finally forced to flee to Australia (encountering some escaped Botany Bay convicts along the way). The work also contains invaluable early accounts of the Gambier and Fiji Islands, Tongatapu, Rio de Janeiro, and the discovery of the "Duff Group" among the Santa Cruz Islands. Fortunately, the work has less to do with the missionaries' religious proselytizing than with their fascination for the exotic lands and peoples they encounter, and includes an Appendix of observations on native dress, houses, dances, cookery, canoes, marriage, human sacrifice, sports. etc. "The narrative is fresh, although sometimes naive, and provides a glimpse of everyday life on the islands that the mariner or naturalist didn't consider worth reporting" (Hill).