Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii, or, Owhyhee; with Remarks on the History, Traditions, Manners Customs, & Language of the Inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands

London: : H. Fisher, Son, and P. Jackson, 1826 First edition. Rare, especially in this condition. Pp. [10], 3-442. Folding frontis map, 7 engraved plates. Newly bound in 2007 in light greenish-tan boards, brown silk cloth spine, gilt-lettered leather spine label. An exceptional copy, very fine, tall, clean throughout and with the text block untrimmed! Ellis was an early Protestant missionary to the Polynesian Islands, especially in the Society and Hawaiian Islands. This Narrative is "particularly important, as it was the first book written about the Hawaiian Islands and the first serious notice of the Islands since Captain Cook's discovery of them forty-eight years earlier. It may be called the scientific book on Hawaii: although its main purpose was to report on mission progress, and Ellis was primarily interested in local manners and traditions, he was sufficiently expansive to include observations on such natural and cultural topics as volcanoes, antiquities, and the anthropology of the Islands… the book became quite popular almost immediately. The poet Coleridge is reported to have stated that he considered Ellis's Narrative of a Tour Through Hawaii to be the most interesting and instructive book of travel that he had ever read. Ellis is also remembered for setting up the first printing press in the South Seas. In 1823, while he was still in Hawaii, Ellis and American missionary Hiram Bingham printed the first Hawaiian book, a hymnal" (Hill). The appendix contains, "Remarks on the Hawaiian language." "Due to his long service in Tahiti and fluency in that language, [Ellis] was of great assistance to the Hawaiian Mission... [and] was able to give a more accurate narrative of the traditions and customs of the Hawaiian people" (Forbes). The large folding map is titled, "Map of Hawaii, the Largest of the Sandwich Islands; Improved from Vancouver's Survey." [Forbes: 634; Hill 2 : 545]..