The History of the Tahitian Mission, 1799-1830

lii+393 pages with 3 folding maps with one in back pocket, 18 illustrations and plates, appendices and index. Octavo (8 3/4" x 6") bound in original publisher's blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine and pictorial representation of the ship Victoria embossed on front cover with blind-stamped edges to the cover. Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, second series, volume 116. First edition. In the wake of the navigators who opened up the Pacific came missionaries, traders and finally administrators. In the early decades of the nineteenth century Polynesia was a rich field for the curious and calculating, for writers and adventurers. The pioneer European settlers in Eastern Polynesia were ministers and mechanics sent out on the crest of an Evangelical wave that merged with the currents and eddies of trade and whaling to break down the isolation of the islands and their inhabitants. Among the pioneers was the Welshman John Davies who spent just over fifty years of his life on Tahiti and neighboring islands. He witnessed the rise of the Pomare dynasty, conversion to Christianity, reaction to attempt at theocratic government and the gradual encroachment of alien commerce and European rule. His colleagues have made their contribution to the history and anthropology of Polynesia. Davies himself, teacher, linguist and careful observer, wrote his own story of the mission, its personalities and their contact with the Polynesians, from the early phase of disillusionment through three decades of political and economic change, destruction and reconstruction. From this contact there emerged the uneasy compromise of missionary and indigenous beliefs and institutions that characterized Tahiti and its neighbors before and after the advent of French administration.Condition: Corners and fore edge bumped, spine sunned else about very good.