[Rarebooks] fa: [AUSTRALIA & SOUTH PACIFIC] - JOURNAL OF COMMODORE GOODENOUGH 1873-5

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 17. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/w5lhoul

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


James Graham Goodenough [and Victoria H. Goodenough]: Journal of Commodore Goodenough, R.N., C.B., C.M.G., During His Last Command as Senior Officer on the Australian Station, 1873-1875. Edited, with a  Memoir, by His Widow. London: Henry S. King, 1876. First edition; 8vo (20 cm) bound (by Baker & Son, Clifton) in period half calf and marbled boards, spine tooled and lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers and page edges; xi, [1], 369 pp.; with the half-title page, portrait frontispiece, in-text illustrations, and 3 large linen-backed folding maps (complete).

Appointed commodore of the Australian Station in 1873, Goodenough's duties took him to Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), and points in between. One of his missions was to explore Fiji's suitability as a prospective British colony. The work contains much on Australia, including observations on Melbourne, Launceston, Wollongong and Bulli, and the coal fields of New South Wales. "His duties included the maintenance of law and order among British subjects in the Pacific and control of their relations with indigenous peoples. On 12 August 1875, while trying to conciliate natives on Carlisle Bay in the Santa Cruz Islands [Solomon Islands]," Goodenough was struck and mortally wounded by a poisoned arrow (Australian Dictionary of Biography).

The folding maps, all of which have been laid down on linen, consist of: Sketch of the Rewa River (Fiji); Chart of the Coast of South Australia and Bass's Strait; and Part of the South Pacific, showing the Track of H.M.S. "Pearl" during the Last Voyage of Commodore Goodenough. Binding with some rubbing and wear to the extremities, boards a bit bowed from the inserted maps, joints starting at the ends but secure; contents with mild toning and occasional scattered spotting (most noticeable on the title-page and the text leaves adjacent to the folding maps), else generally quite clean and sound, securely bound.