MARINER William Voyage aux Îles des Amis situées dans l’océan Pacifique, fait dans les années 1805 à 1810, avec l’histoire des habitans depuis leur découverte par le capitaine Cook.

See Hill, 1075; Forbes, 468.

New issue of the first French translation with a new title, first published in the year of the first English edition (1817) under the title Histoire des naturels des Îles Tonga.

This is an important account of the Tonga Islands by the Englishman William Charles Mariner (1791-1853), who lived in Tonga for four years. As a young sailor, Mariner sailed aboard the privateer Porte au Prince to the New World with the aim of attacking Spanish ships and searching for whales. After seizing several Spanish ships, several Hawaiians joined the crew in 1806. Their visit to the Tonga Islands proved fatal: almost the entire crew was massacred by the natives (ironically, James Cook had nicknamed Tonga the “Friendly Islands”). The author, however, survived and lived there from around 1806 to 1810, observing and recording Tongan culture with a keen eye for detail. The second volume includes interesting notes on James Cook, who, with his crew, received a friendly welcome there.

We have been unable to find any trace of this title in specialist bibliographies. A very good copy, entirely untrimmed.