Journal de Maximo Rodriguez, premier Européen ayant habité Tahiti (Tautira). 1774-1775

A very scarce book, printed by the government press in Tahiti, the first complete edition of the private journal of Maximo Rodriguez, who arrived in Tahiti in 1774 and stayed for over a year. This marks the work out as an important insight into pre-colonial Tahiti, and Rodriguez's journal is the earliest sustained reflection on Tahitian life by a European. It had previously been serialised in successive issues of the Bulletin de la Société des études océaniennes. The journal (written in Spanish but here translated) dates from the last major attempt by the Spanish government to assert their influence in the region.

The voyage of the Aquila in 1772 had brought back some Tahitians to be instructed in the Catholic faith, and a second voyage of 1774 was mounted to return them to instruct their compatriots in Christianity. Rodriguez, a marine, travelled as an interpreter on this second voyage. His lengthy stay, so soon after the discovery of the islands, marks him out as one of the most important of the early European visitors, and his account is 'un document unique sur le premier séjour prolongé d'un Européen à Tahiti' (O'Reilly-Reitman).

His diary, originally presented to the library of the Royal Geographical Society by no less a figure than FitzRoy of the Beagle (who had been given it by Rodriguez's daughter in 1835), was rediscovered by the Pacific historian Corney.