THIERCELIN, LOUIS | Journal d'un Baleinier, Voyages en Oceanie. Paris: L. Hachette, 1866

THIERCELIN, LOUIS

Journal d'un Baleinier, Voyages en Oceanie. Paris: L. Hachette, 1866

2 volumes. 8vo (190 x 120 mm). Original printed yellow wrappers. Faint dampstain to margins of early leaves in second volume and some general light rubbing, but overall a very nice copy. Cloth box.

First edition of a rare work with very good New Zealand and Hawaii content. Thiercelin voayged twice to the South Seas in 1837-41 and in 1863-65. Going beyond his detailed descriptions of whaling techniques, the author gives his extensive observations on English and Spanish colonial systems, especially the mistreatment of the primitive Bubis of Fernando Po and the Maori of New Zealand. He devotes 70 pages to comparing Akaroa, New Zealand, as it was in 1840 and then a quarter of a century later. Two chapters are similarly devoted to the Hawalians in 1839 and 1864.

REFERENCES

Hunnewell, Bibi. of the Hawaiian Islands, p. 69. Hill, p. 291. Judd, Voyages to Hawaii before 1860, 171.