Heading:
Author: Wilson, William
Title: A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, Performed in the Years 1796, 1797, 1798, in the ship Duff, commanded by Captain James Wilson. Compiled from journals of the officers and the missionaries. With a preliminary discourse on the geography and history of the South Sea Islands; and an appendix, including details never before published, of the natural and civil state of Otaheite
Place Published: London
Publisher:By S. Gosnell for T. Chapman
Date Published: 1799
Description:

[12], c, 420, [12 list of subscribers] pp. 6 engraved plates and 7 engraved maps (5 folding). (4to) 28.5x23 cm. (11¼x9"), modern calf-backed marbled boards with vellum tips at corners. First Edition.

"The London Missionary Society was founded in 1795, mainly to send missions to Polynesia. The voyage of the Duff was undertaken for the purpose of establishing a mission in Tahiti, and a settlement of twenty-five persons was formed. Apart from the missionary interest of this account, the voyagers made many important discoveries of islands, including Timoe, Mangareva, and Pakarua in the Tuamoto Archipelago; Ongea and Fulanga Islands; Vanua Mbalavu, and Satawal, Lamotrek, Elato, Ifalik, and Woleai atolls in the Western Carolines, before putting in at Macao. A new group of islands, named the Duff Group, was discovered among the Santa Cruz Islands. On the outward voyage, the expedition visited Rio de Janeiro. The narrative is fresh, although sometimes naive, and provides a glimpse of everyday life on the islands that the mariner or naturalist didn't consider worth reporting." -- Hill, 1894.

Some foxing and browning, all plates trimmed and perhaps supplied from another (smaller) copy; small repair to large folding map and larger repair to one other; some pencil notations within; good.