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Important Voyage Account – The Voyage of the Duff to the South Sea Islands – Captain James Wilson – First edition 1799.

Full 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; and Illustrated with Maps, Charts and Views drawn by Mr William Wilson, and engraved by the most eminent Artists. 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.

Printed by Gosnell for Publisher T. Chapman, Fleet Street, London 1799. Large quarto with wide margins. 420 pages after preliminaries and before substantial and distinguished subscribers list. With seven folded engraved maps and six beautifully engraved plates. Rebound at some time in half crimson morocco over matching red cloth covered boards, headband, top edge freshly gilt. A very good solid and internally clean copy.

An early voyage to the Pacific, undertaken for the purpose of establishing a mission in Tahiti. A settlement of was formed with twenty five members. Though the King befriended them, they met with continual difficulties due to continuous civil wars and were finally forced to flee to Australia. Though some returning some time much later in 1815. The work contains many valuable details regarding Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, Tonga, the Marquesas, etc. The discovery of a new group of islands, named the Duff Group among the Santa Cruz Islands. The narrative is full and readable with considerable valuable observation – not at all in the often dry “missionary” style. Stands, in our view, as a key read in the early Pacific Voyages genre.

The large folding “Chart of the Duff’s Track in the Pacific Ocean” was the first map to use the name Australia than New Holland.

Other important maps comprise – Feejee Islands; Marquesas Islands; Duff’s Group; Gambier Islands; Island of Otaheite and Island of Tongataboo.

Views comprise … Harbour of Rio Janeiro; Missionary Settlement at Matavai; View of Tallo Harbour; Great Morai of Oberca; Morai and Ark of the Eatooa at Attahooroo and Fiatookas of Futtasaihe.

One of classic late 18thC voyage accounts of significant exploration interest – a very good copy.

$980.00

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The First Fleet: The Record of the Foundation of Australia from Its Conception to the Settlement of Sydney Cove. Compiled from the original documents in the Public Record Office, with extracts from the Log-Books of H.M.S. Sirius – Owen Rutter with engravings by Barker – Mill, Peter – 1937

Published by the distinguished The Golden Cockerel Press, London, 1937. Very good condition. Peter Barker-Mill (illustrator). Limited edition, one of 375 copies.

Tristan Buesst’s copy with his bookplate. Buesst, a legal eagle, was the first President of the Friends of La Trobe Library.

Folio 15 inches. Foreword by the Hon. B.S.B. Stevens, M.L.A., Premier of New South Wales. Five Engravings by Peter Barker-Mill. Four pages of facsimiles between pp. 8 and 9 (not included in pagination). “printed & published by Christopher and Anthony Sandford and Owen Rutter at the Golden Cockerel Press. Printed on Arnold’s hand-made paper in “Perpetua” type.

Original Blue Cloth. Front cover with cream-coloured cloth label decoratively stamped in gilt. Spine decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt. Top edge trimmed, others uncut. A simply beautiful production.

Published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Foundation of Australia. The Editor has provided a judicious selection of the original documents and created a connected narrative. The Times Literary Supplement referred to the distinction of the printing and binding, adding that it was certainly a volume which all interested in Australia would care to possess and at the same time paying high tribute to Peter Barker-Mill’s imaginative engravings.

$490.00

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Little Ragged Blossom and more about Snugglepot and Cuddlepie – May Gibbs – First Edition c 1920

Published Sydney: Angus Robertson no date but 1920 and a First Edition.

Quarto. Cloth backed pictorial boards with a colour vignette of Little Ragged Blossom pasted on with some wear. The odd mark – on the whole a very good copy.

The wonderful fantasy world of the gum-nut babies portrayed in glorious detail. Illustrated by Gibbs with two full colour plates and twenty wonderful sepia plates as well as pictorial end papers and many line illustrations in-text. Scarce in any condition. Reference the authority Muir 2752.

Little Ragged Blossom a May Gibbs Delight

$240.00

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Polynesian Navigation – A Symposium on Andrew Sharp’s Thoery of Accidental Voyages – Edited by Jack Golson

Andrew Sharpe certainly stirred up the debate as to hoe the Pacific Islands may have been settled.

A symposium in the 1960’s brought together some pretty good minds on the subject.

Published by the Polynesian Society, Wellington, New Zealand in 1963. Being Memoir No 34, a Supplement to the Journal of the Society. Softcover, octavo, 153 pages plus bibliography. Three useful maps, two of which are folding. A little age, still a very good copy.

Cartographic expert, Thomas M Perry’s copy with his discrete stamp top of front cover.

The body of the work review the “Accidental Voyage Theory”’ – Parsonson; Primitive Navigation – Captain Hayen and Captain Hilder; Sailing Characteristics of Oceanic Canoes – Bechton; The Geographical Knowledge of the Polynesians and the Nature of Inter-Island Contact – Dening; Geographical Knowledge of Tahitian etc etc

The Pacific Solved – Maybe

$35.00

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The Mutineer – A Romance of Pitcairn Island – Louis Becke and Walter Jeffrey – First Colonial (Australian) Edition 1898.

Likely technically the first edition is the London issue of that year. The first and this issue the first Colonial issue by Angus & Robertson both extremely scarce.

Octavo, 298 pages plus Publishers catalogue. Original dark green cloth covered binding, gilt title to spine. The odd mark to the boards, missing front free end paper and occasional light ageing. Otherwise really not bad and, try to find another one.

George Lewis Becke (1855-1913) was born at Port Macquarie and must be regarded as the best Australian author of the period in the genre adventure … South Seas … historical based fiction. He has been compared with Robert Louis Stevenson, Melville, Kipling, Conrad etc exalted company indeed.

Becke had the pedigree – from an early age he escaped to the South Pacific … ferried vessels to Bully Hayes, was tried (and acquitted) as a pirate at Brisbane at the age of 19 etc etc.

Prolific writer once he settled down. This Bounty Mutiny based story one of the later works and a collaboration. Didn’t get into print in the USA as a relationship between different races didn’t fit the then standards.

With a novel we at Voyager always like a good short helpful first sentence. We have the first paragraph here just to get you into the mood.

“It was night at Tahiti, in the Society Islands. The trade-wind had died away, and a bright flood of shimmering moonlight poured down upon the slumbering waters of a little harbour a few miles distant from Matavia Bay, and the white curve of beach that fringed the darkened line of palms shone and glistened like a belt of ivory under the effulgence of its rays. For nearly half a mile the broad sweep of dazzling sand showed no interruption nor break upon its surface save at one spot; there it ran out into a long narrow point, on which, under a small cluster of graceful cocos, growing almost at the water’s edge, a canoe was drawn up”.

Louis Becke’s scarce and somewhat controversial South Seas story.

$120.00

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My Memoirs Laced with East Coast Tales of Van Diemens Land [Tasmania] – Edward Shaw.

A super memoir. Self published in the year 2000 by the author. Larger format softcover 137 pages. A very good near fine copy. Frontispiece facsimile map of 1825 by Souter. Images from original photographs and sketches throughout.

A bit of an old fashioned rendition about folks and what they got up to and who was related to who and did what. Having said that you cannot but get a warm feeling for Edward Shaw by the time you finish and the East Coast of Tasmania feels more like home as it should be.

East Coast of Tasmania and who was who and a beautiful place

$25.00

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Important Voyage Account – The Voyage of the Duff to the South Sea Islands – Captain James Wilson – First edition 1799.

The First Fleet: The Record of the Foundation of Australia from Its Conception to the Settlement of Sydney Cove. Compiled from the original documents in the Public Record Office, with extracts from the Log-Books of H.M.S. Sirius – Owen Rutter with engravings by Barker – Mill, Peter – 1937

Little Ragged Blossom and more about Snugglepot and Cuddlepie – May Gibbs – First Edition c 1920

Polynesian Navigation – A Symposium on Andrew Sharp’s Thoery of Accidental Voyages – Edited by Jack Golson

The Mutineer – A Romance of Pitcairn Island – Louis Becke and Walter Jeffrey – First Colonial (Australian) Edition 1898.

My Memoirs Laced with East Coast Tales of Van Diemens Land [Tasmania] – Edward Shaw.

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