[Ellis, William, and others]

Journal of a Tour Around Hawaii, the Largest of the Sandwich Islands. By a Deputation from the Mission on those Islands. Boston: Published by Crocker & Brewster; New York: John P. Haven, 1825



12mo (7 1/2 x 4 5/8 in.; 191 x 116 mm, uncut). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Kuakini, folding engraved map of the Island of Hawaii, four engraved plates after sketches by Ellis by S. S. Jocelyn; very occasional light spotting or offsetting. Modern half calf, red morocco spine labels. Half russet morocco slipcase.

N. B. Emerson, President of Hawaii's Board of Health and a significant Hawaiian ethnologist during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (signature on front fly-leaf and on page 71)

Ayer/Butler 129; Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography 600; Streeter sale 6:3751

First edition. The Sandwich Island Mission was initially established at Honolulu, Oahu, in 1820 and soon began penetration of the other Hawaiian Islands, starting with Maui. In the spring of 1823, the Mission began arrangements "for surveying Hawaii, with a view to the judicious occupation of that large and populous island" (preface). A deputation comprising Ellis, Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop, and Joseph Goodrich travelled the island for two months that summer, producing the present record of their journey.

"Although well larded with religious exhortations, the book is an invaluable and detailed examination of all aspects of Hawaiian culture as well as descriptive of geographical features of the island" (Forbes). There are several significant appendices to the text, including Hawaiian and Fijian vocabularies, a list of Hawaiian deities, a brief Pacific gazetteer, and a concise dictionary of Hawaiian biography.