[Rarebooks] fa: FOUR YEARS' RESIDENCE AT TONGATABOO [TONGA] - George Vason - First Edition 1810

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, November 19. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/mrsk4pr2

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[George Vason:] An Authentic Narrative of Four Years' Residence at Tongataboo, one of the Friendly Islands, in the South-Sea, By ------ Who went thither in the Duff, under Captain Wilson, in 1796. With an Appendix, by an Eminent Writer. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees [et al], 1810. First edition. Tall 8vo (22.5) in original publisher's printed boards backed in (later?) cloth; 234, [2] pp.; with an engraved frontispiece and map, errata leaf. Hill (Pacific Voyages) p.306; Howgego D37.

Ex-reference library, but minimally so: blind-stamp and shelving label on the front board, library slip on front paste-down, no other noticeable markings; the boards with some rubbing and edge-wear, the binding a bit tender, with some page-gatherings starting to loosen, but holding; one leaf with a closed tear, the contents evenly age-toned with occasional light spots and touches of soiling.

A remarkable narrative, made even more remarkable by apparently being mostly true. George Vason, a young former tradesman's apprentice of Nottingham, was among the first group of Christian missionaries to arrive in the Tonga Islands. When a fight broke out between the locals and their visitors, killing three of the missionaries and causing the rest to flee, Vason remained on Tongatapu and "went native," adopting the local customs and language, tattooing his body, and taking a Tongan wife (multiple wives, in fact). After a peaceful few years, his tropical idyll was cut short when he was caught up in the Tongan civil war and forced to flee for his life in a canoe. Eventually rescued by a passing East-Indiaman, he was taken to China and from there to New York, where he served for a time as a sailor on American ships before returning home to Nottingham. Vason's narrative includes accounts of places visited on his way to and from Tonga, including Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope, New Holland (Australia), Otaheite (Tahiti), Macao, and Canton.