1859 Fiji & The Fijians Williams & Calvert New York First Edition

WILLIAMS, THOMAS & JAMES CALVERT. Fiji and the Fijians. Edited by George Stringer Rowe. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1859. Original covers with spine re-backed. Of 551 pages with coloured frontis piece, folding map and 40 wood engraved plates and illustrations, of which two are in colour. The book was first published in 1858 in England. and is considered to be one of the outstanding definitive works on Fiji. This is the First American Edition. The Reverend Thomas Williams, of Adelaide, Australia, lived as a Wesleyan missionary in Fiji for thirteen years. The Reverend James Calvert who considered the 'father' of the Fiji missions, worked there for seventeen years. The preface to the first volume gives some guidelines to the pronunciation of the Fijian language. The book contains a huge amount of information on the origins of the natives, their warlike tendencies, industrial produce, manners, customs, religion, and language. This is a very fine copy...some minor spotting only...mainly on map back.....generally very clean...some page 'yellowing' but minor only. Some small weevil bites at bottom edge of last few pages only. Marbelled affect to the first few pages only. A wonderful book for anyone who is a collector of Fijian or Pacific items or who is interested in the history and early development of Fiji. This book is on offer at up to US$850 at on-line specialist book sellers.