An Account of the Pelew Islands, situated in the western part of the Pacific Ocean

Book Description

London: printed for G. Nicol, 1788. Stipple-engraved portrait frontispiece of Wilson by I. Heath after I. Russell, 16 engraved plates and maps (comprised of 1 folding map, 1 folding coastal profile, 3 views, 3 portraits and 8 other plates), extra-illustrated with 1 plate from the 1803 fifth edition of the same work. [with:] John Pearce HOCKIN (1773?- 1831). A supplement to the account of the Pelew Islands. London; printed for Captain Henry Wilson by W. Bulmer & Co, sold by G. & W.Nicol [and others], 1803. Half-title. 2 works in one volume, 4to (12 1/2 x 9 7/8 inches). Contemporary half russia, uncut, rebacked, later endpapers. Provenance: Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert (1831-1905, bookplate). A fine, large, completely uncut set of the first edition of this highly popular and very readable work on the Palau Islands, together with the subsequent supplement, with an appropriate provenance. From the library of a British colonial administrator of the first rank: the governor of Queensland, under-secretary of the colonies, etc. Keate's Pelew Islands was one of the most popular eighteenth-century books on the Pacific, and remains the main source for early knowledge of the Palau Islands in Micronesia and has been described as 'a splendid yarn of danger and adventure in the South Seas and the most thoroughgoing and elaborate presentation of the noble savage in the literature of the South Seas' (European Vision and the South Pacific, pp. 136-7). "In 1783 the Antelope, commanded by Captain Henry Wilson, was wrecked on a reef near one of the Palau (Pelew) Islands, a previously unexplored group. The entire crew managed to get safely ashore, where they were well treated by the natives and eventually managed to build a small vessel from the wreck, in which they reached Macao. They took Prince Lee Boo, one of King Abba Thulle's sons, with them to England, where he made a good impression. Unhappily, in spite of all precautions, he soon died of smallpox. George Keate ... composed this relation from the journals and communications of Captain Wilson and some of his officers. The Account ... was extremely popular, and in 1788 and 1789 four editions were printed in London..." (Hill p.321). "After the death of Prince Lee Boo (sometimes called Libu) ... the East India Company sent two ships under Captain John M'Cluer to convey the unfortunate news to Abba Thule, the king of the Palau Islands. The Company also sent out gifts of cattle, domestic animals, plants, and seeds to the inhabitants. The Englishmen and the Palau islanders established friendly relationships, and the ships stayed intermittently for over a year, allowing the crew to teach the natives how to plant and cultivate the new crops. Each ship left for a few months at a time to survey the coast of New Guinea and to visit the coast of China ... After a time, M'Cluer married an island woman, resigned his commission, acquired a plantation, and became a Palau chieftain. After a year and a quarter, M'Cluer grew tired of the solitude, and he managed to reach the coast of China in a native boat ... He returned to Palau for his family and then sailed for Calcutta, India, where they were to live. Hockin's narrative ... was originally published as part of the fifth edition of Keate's work published in London in 1803. Some copies [as here] were issued as thin quarto separates, so that owners of the 1788 editions of Keate could bind the two together as one volume" (Hill pp.289-290). This copy is from the library of Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert, G.C.B., who held the office of Premier of Queensland between 1859 and 1866; was Assistant Under- Secretary of the Colonial Office between 1869 and 1871; Under-Secretary of the Colonies between 1871 and 1892; and Agent-General of Tasmania between 1893 and 1896. Hill (2004) 907 & 816.

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