An Account Of A Government Mission To The Vitian Or Fijian Islands In The Years 1860-61
Viti An Account Of A Government Mission To The Vitian Or Fijian Islands In The Years 1860-61
Macmillan & Co., 1862.
First edition. 8vo. Original green bead cloth, concentric blind rules to covers, gilt titles and blind decoration to spine. Tinted lithographic frontispiece, three further tinted lithographs, four engraved illustrations in the text and a folding map of the Fijian islands. A near fine copy, the cloth clean and bright with a touch of wear to the spine ends. Internally very fresh, hinges tender with a little adhesive to the front pastedown from a sometime excised bookplate. Small ownership inscription to half title.
In 1859 Seemann, a noted botanist, was commissioned to accompany an exploratory British government mission to Fiji, convened to investigate a potential cession of the islands.
"His instructions as a botanist were 'to prepare a report on the native and cultivated vegetable products of the Fijian islands, and the apparent capabilities of the islands... to produce cotton, sugar, spices, indigo and other tropical plants'. In addition he was to 'make as complete a collection as possible of all the plants of the islands and all vegetable products'" (Howgego). Though the emphasis was on Fiji's plant life (published at length in his monumental Flora Vitiensis (1865-73) which is advertised for subscription at the end of the present volume), Seemann records in detail aspects of a local commerce, manufacture and culture only beginning to open up to outsiders.
Howgego III S16.
Stock ID: 38478
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