A missionary voyage to the southern Pacific Ocean, performed in the years 1796, 1797, 1798, in the Ship Duff. . . compiled from journals of the officers and the missionaries; and illustrated with maps, charts, and views. . . .

London: Printed by S. Gosnell for T. Chapman, No. 151, Fleet Street, 1799. Thick 4to. 9.5 x 11.2 in. [12], c, 420 pp., plus 12 pp. subscriber’s list. With large folding frontisp. map of the South Pacific (expert repairs to closed tear at gutter margin, old repairs to folds, minor soiling), 6 maps (4 folding), 6 engraved plates (2 misbound). Recent brown half-calf over marbled boards, renewed endpapers, raised bands on spine, gilt ruling, black morocco & gilt spine label (minor soot soiling to fore-edges of textblock, occasional dustsoiling to margins of leaves, including title, occasional spotting), still a VG bright copy. First edition of this informative work detailing the first British missionary voyage to the South Pacific upon the HMS Duff, compiled by William Wilson from his own journals, those of Captain Wilson, and of other missionaries on the voyage. The ship under the command of Capt. John Wilson, carried 37 artisans and pastors of the London Missionary Society, and their families who were resettled in the South Pacific on the islands of Tahiti, Tonga, and the Marquesas from 1796-98. During his voyages aboard the Duff, Capt. Wilson discovered the archipelago of Mangareva, which he named Gambier in honor of the British admiral sponsoring the expedition. The mission would prove successful primarily through the efforts of Peter Hagerstein, a Swede who was a deserter from the HMS Daedalus in Captain Vancouver’s exploring expedition and by 1797 had become a significant warrior and absorbed into Tahitian society. He was able to explain the political intrigue in Tahiti, interpreted for the missionaries, and also warned them when the Tahitians plotted to attack them. The HMS Duff was captured later in Feb., 1799 by a French privateer making this the last voyage that the ship flew the missionary flag of three doves carrying an olive branch. See: Hill, 1894-95; Cox, II, 307; Ian Campbell, “Gone Native” in Polynesia: Captivity Narratives and Experiences fron the South Pacific, pp. 33-34, 162.