The Voyage of Tonquin

Vantage Press, 1998. paperback. Very Good. 7x5x0. 1998 signed first edition, Vantage Press (NY), 5 3/8 x 8 inches tall paperbound, ix, 196 pp. Very slight edgewear to covers, and very slight soiling to fore page edges. Signed and simply inscribed ('Enjoy') by author on half title page. Otherwise, a near fine copy of this scarce history - clean, bright and unmarked. ~SP37~ [1.0P] Author Eugene Pantano rescues a slice of early nineteenth-century American-western expansion that takes the reader on a journey which begins in Montreal, sailing down along the coast of Africa, onward to round the Falkland Isles, and finally to explore the wooded lands along the Columbia River. He introduces us to the Sandwich Islands, the various ways indigenous people execute battle and the wide assortment of foods the explorers lived on. The Tonquin was a 290-ton merchant ship owned by the American Pacific Fur Company (PFC). The ship was intended to establish and supply PFC outposts in the Pacific Northwest along with participating in the Maritime Fur Trade by selling valuable furs to the Qing Empire. Work began in May 1811 on the sole trading post founded by the Tonquin, Fort Astoria. After the initial construction was completed, the ship sailed north to trade with the Nuu-chah-nulth nations of Vancouver Island. While the crew was negotiating commercial transactions with the Tla-o-qui-aht nation in June, a dispute arose due to Jonathan Thorn's treatment of an elder. The entire crew besides its interpreter from the Quinault nation was killed by armed Tla-o-qui-aht led by chief Wickaninnish. The Tonquin was destroyed and sunk at Clayoquot Sound.