Exploration

The Islands of the Pacific – from Old to New – James Alexander – First Edtion 1895

James Alexander was the son of Hawaiian missionary William P Alexander. Published by the American Tract Society, New York in 1895. A substantial work, octavo 503 pages and appendices. Illustrated throughout with nice pictorial covers in good condition.

After three chapters of general introduction there are discrete chapters on The Society Islands, Austral Islands; Peal Islands; Hawaiian Islands; The Marquesas; Harvey Islands; Samoa; Micronesia; Tonga; New Zealand; Fiji; Melanesia; Pitcairn and Norfolk. An interesting chapter in retrospect on the “Future of the Pacific Ocean”.

The appendices provide good information on the Ancient Polynesians, Languages, European Appropriations and a list of active Missionaries and where they were. The seventy illustrations include simple but useful maps, and images form early photographs albeit sometimes posed.

Alexander covers some ground … and some ocean … in this well structured book.

$60.00

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Isles of Illusion (Letters from the South Seas) – Edited by Bohun Lynch – First Edition 1925

First edition published by Small. Maynard and Co, Boston in 1923.

Octavo, 331 pages, browned because of nature of paper otherwise very clean internally. Gilt title to front board still bright and clean, spine somewhat sunned. A pretty good copy.

The author of the many emotional and illuminating letters was to remain anonymous and Lynch refers to him as Asterisk in the lengthy introduction. We learn there that the author, real name Robert James Fletcher (1877-1965), was an Oxford graduate and man of taste. The letters result from over seven years in the New Hebrides and it was tough for Fletcher.

J.G. Bonhun Lynch (1884-1928) has some success as a novelist. Based on the quality of the letters, English publisher Constable convinced Asterisk (Fletcher) to publish a novel which he did titled “Gone Native a Tale of the South Seas” … it was semi-autobiographical.

Fletcher wrote many letters before Gone Native

$50.00

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Manga Reva – The Forgotten Islands – Signed by Author Robert Eskeridge – First Edition1931

A Voyager favourite and the book about Manga Reva the largest island within the Gambier Group.

The Polynesian Gambier group are tiny with a total population of around 1,400 people mostly on Manga Reva. The total area is about 30 square kms. At one time the islands supported several thousand but over logging ruined the islands position in Polynesian trade routed and they fell into decline before stabilising in the late 19th century. It is an important link to anyone wanting to travel to the Pitcairn Islands and also, unfortunately, has been affected by French nuclear testing in the Pacific.

Published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1931, a first edition. Large octavo, 286 pages, original blue cloth covered binding. Good to better condition some evidence of a damp mark in against the spine, more evident in the endpapers, bar that very clean and readable.

Signed by the author Robert Lee Eskeridge (1891-1975) a very talented American artist, and the book contains many illustrations based on his superb paintings, as well as his photographs. It is not clear how long he spent on the island but it was quite some years based on the relationships he formed and the depth of his observations.

Unique book on Manga Reva – Signed

$70.00

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The Long Labrador Trail – Dillon Wallace – First Edition 1907

A first edition published by The Outing Publishing Company, New York. It was published simultaneously in Toronto. Octavo, 308 pages plus appendix of weather information daily. Nicely illustrated with 29 photographic images, coloured frontispiece and folding map at rear. The beautiful pictorial covers complete a very book. Showing some age but still nice and clean inside and a pretty good copy.

Dillon Wallace (1863-1939) had legal training but loved the outdoors. In 1903, he accompanied Leonidas Hubbard on an exploratory trip through Labrador planning to follow the Naskaupi River to Lake Michikamau where no previous Europeans had trod. They followed the wrong river and got into so much difficulty that Hubbard fell ill and died of starvation. Wallace survived and wrote his first book The Lure of the Labrador Wild published in 1905. In that book, he blamed Hubbard for the mistakes he made leading to his own death. This infuriated his wife.

Wallace planned a much more adventurous expedition still and that is the subject of this book. Hubbard’s wife on hearing of the expedition planned her own, along the same lines and beat Wallace to the final destination by some weeks. She also wrote a book A Woman’s Way Through Unknown Labrador … neither refer to each other!

Wallace in Labrador a second time with success and unmentioned competition.

$120.00

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Early Observations of Marquesan Culture 1595-1813 – Edwin Ferdon

First published University of Arizona, 1993. Octavo, 184 pages in very good if not fine condition.

A scholarly work by Edwin Ferdon who as a young man was archaeologist on the Thor Heyerdahl 1955 expedition to Easter Island. The notes and bibliography make it extra useful for those that want to more broadly study the history of the Marquesas.

Ferdon was thorough

$40.00

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Captain Henry Byam Martin R.N. – Polynesian Journal

Published by the Peabody Museum in 1981, Octavo 192 pages beautifully illustrated. A very good copy in a complete dust jacket.

Captain Martin’s first command, H.M.S. Grampus with orders to sail for Hawaii to await further orders which were to sail for Tahiti the French planning to subjugate the island, which they did by “bloody force”.

The actual journal was in the bowels of the British Museum … it is characterised by in the moment observations and a sense of humour regarding the struggle between the French and the British and the oft hopeless position the islanders found themselves in.

The text of an important one time “lost” journal .

$40.00

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The Islands of the Pacific – from Old to New – James Alexander – First Edtion 1895

Isles of Illusion (Letters from the South Seas) – Edited by Bohun Lynch – First Edition 1925

Manga Reva – The Forgotten Islands – Signed by Author Robert Eskeridge – First Edition1931

The Long Labrador Trail – Dillon Wallace – First Edition 1907

Early Observations of Marquesan Culture 1595-1813 – Edwin Ferdon

Captain Henry Byam Martin R.N. – Polynesian Journal

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