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Captain James Wilson; William Wilson; James Morrison : A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, Performed in the Years 1796, 1797, 1798, in the Ship Duff, Commanded by Captain James Wilson. Compiled from Journals of the Officers and the Missionaries; and Illustrated with Maps, Charts, and Views, Drawn by Mr. William Wilson, and engraved by the most eminent Artists. With a Preliminary Discourse on the Geography and History of the South Sea Islands; and an Appendix, Including Details Never Before Published, of the Natural and Civil State of Otaheite; by a Committee Appointed for the Purpose By the Directors of the Missionary Society

T. Chapman, London, 1799

Full contemporary calf boards, expertly rebacked, spine with 6 compartments of raised bands and gilt borders, text in 2 and 6, edges speckled red and endpapers renewed. , This book is in very good condition, the text and plates are clean and crisp., 4to, P. (6), title, blank, dedication (2), advertisement, blank, list of prints, blank, contents (4), preliminary discourse i-lxxxvii, blank, instructions to Wilson lxxxix-c, 1-312, appendix 313-395, blank, list of subscribers (7), (7)., Complete with 13 plates and maps (one folding), all detailing the geography and scenery of the south Pacific islands.

“This voyage was undertaken by the London Missionary Society for the purpose of establishing a mission in Tahiti. A settlement of twenty-five persons was formed. The king of the Islands befriended them, but they met with continual difficulties from the civil wars, and finally had to flee to Australia, returning, however, in 1815 to Tahiti…. [Includes] many valuable details regarding Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, the Marquesas, etc. A new group of islands was found among the Santa Cruslands and named the Duff Group…. The account is of extraordinary interest for its fresh and sometimes naïve viewpoint, and for its descriptions of customs passed over by the nautical and geographical explorer.” (Cox II:307).

“Almost certainly two printers were employed by Chapman in order to speed up the job of publishing this quarto. This edition printed by Gillet is sometimes called the second edition; however, the terms ‘coarse-paper,’ ‘small-paper,’ or ‘laid paper edition’ would be more correct. One may refer to them as the Gosnell edition and the Gillet edition. The text in both printings is the same, but the list of subscribers in each is completely different, the Gosnell edition having twelve pages, and the Gillet edition having only seven, which are not alphabetized. A careful study of these lists gives the distinct impression that the Gosnell edition is the earlier and the more expensive volume. As in the Gosnell edition, the Advertisement to this edition also states: ‘The body of the journal is the composition of Mr. William Wilson, from the captain’s papers, his own, and the missionaries’ reports.’” (Hill 1895)

“The anonymous editor of this book was Dr. Thomas Haweis, one of the founders of the London Missionary Society. The long “preliminary discourse” was anonymously written by Samuel Greatheed, using the then-unpublished narrative of James Morrison, one of the pardoned ‘Bounty’ mutineers. Morrison’s manuscript was also the source for the extensive appendix on Tahiti. Indeed, William Wilson and James Morrison may be called co-authors of this book.” (Hill 1894)
, National Maritime Museum I:632; Hill 1894-95; Cox II:307.

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