Books in the Cambridge Library Collection - History of Oceania series

Recommended an open-air life from an early age as a cure for physical and nervous difficulties, the indefatigable Isabella Bird (1831-1904) toured the United States and Canada, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, the Far East, India, Turkey, Persia and Kurdistan. Her accounts of her travels, written in the form of letters to her sister, were bestsellers. In 1875 she published her account of six months in the Hawaiian archipelago. During this time she explored the islands on horseback, visiting volcanos, climbing mountains, and living with the natives. The book includes considerable detail about the lifestyles, customs, and habits of the people she encountered, and of the geography and geology of the islands. Her enthusiasm for Hawaii and its people is evident from her vivid descriptions, but she disliked the restrictive atmosphere of the foreign settlements. The book includes outlines of the history and economy of the islands.

Reverend Richard Taylor (1805-1873) was an English missionary, who wrote extensively on Maori culture and the plant and animal life of New Zealand. Taylor graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge in 1828 and was ordained as an Anglican priest the same year. After serving as a curate in the Isle of Ely, Taylor was appointed as a missionary to New Zealand for the Church Missionary Society. He arrived in Australia in 1836 and landed in New Zealand in 1839. Taylor quickly became a peacekeeper between the different Maori tribes in his district. This volume, first published in 1855, provides a detailed account of Maori mythology and culture with a description of the plant life, animal life and geology of the North Island. Taylor strongly condemns contemporary (nineteenth-century) attitudes to Maori culture and demonstrates the complexity of their society in this sympathetic book.

While in the Society Islands, British missionary William Ellis (1794-1872) keenly observed indigenous Polynesian life and customs that were already shifting under Western influences. Published in 1829, this two-volume collection records his admiration of an inventive and complex culture, alongside his horror at its polytheistic rituals.

As a surgeon and naturalist for the New Zealand Company, Ernst Dieffenbach (1811-55) travelled widely in the North Island between 1839 and 1841. First published in 1843, this highly readable two-volume account of his discoveries and experiences covers the landscapes, flora, fauna and native islanders.

In November 1806, the Port-au-Prince arrived at the Friendly Islands. William Charles Mariner (1791-1853) was among the few crew members spared by the native inhabitants, and lived there for four years. This two-volume second edition of his observations, published in 1818, offers an important early insight into Tongan customs and language.

In this two-volume 1841 work, Sir George Grey (1812-98) writes about two expeditions to North-West Australia that took place under his leadership in 1837-9. Both expeditions encountered difficulties and Grey himself was seriously wounded. The work reflects contemporary attitudes towards the colonies and their indigenous peoples.

This 1847 publication by the artist George Angas (1822-86) describes his experiences in the young colonies of South Australia and New Zealand in the early 1840s. His interest in ethnology and natural history is apparent in his vivid descriptions of indigenous peoples, landscapes, flora and fauna.

In 1840, a young Edward John Eyre embarked on a pioneering trek from Adelaide to Western Australia. Published in 1845, this account enables readers to 'accompany' the explorer on his harrowing expedition. Volume 1 relates some of the darkest moments he witnessed, including desperate searches for water, conflict, and murder.

Published shortly after his death in 1862, Flanagan's chronicle demonstrates the author's enthusiastic, but politically impartial, approach to Australian history. Opening with Cook's voyage of 1770, Volume 1 covers the first sixty-eight years of European immigration, and the political, criminal and military skirmishes that shaped the new British colony.

Published in 1833, this two-volume account by Charles Sturt (1795-1869) documents the difficulties of exploring unmapped territory in the harsh climate of the Australian summer. Volume 1 focuses on Sturt's expedition along the Macquarie and Darling rivers, and his encounters with the Aboriginal population of that region.

J. S. Polack (1807-82), businessman and land speculator, spent most of the 1830s in New Zealand. In this 1838 publication, still regarded as an important, impartial source, he records his experiences there, vividly describing the country's natural history, his encounters with the Maori, and his observations of their culture.

Published in 1904, this authoritative two-volume history by Henry Gyles Turner (1831-1920) traces the first century of European settlement in Victoria, Australia. Volume 1 covers the period from 1803 to Victoria's establishment as an independent colony, and explores the social, political and economic effects of the discovery of gold.

Arthur S. Thomson (1816-60) was a Scottish military surgeon and medical scientist, posted to New Zealand in the late 1840s. His two-volume account of the islands' history was published in 1859. Volume 1 is divided into two parts, on the Maori and on the discovery and settlement by Europeans.

Published in 1892, this two-volume biography chronicles the remarkable life and career of Sir George Grey, the 11th premier of New Zealand. William Lee Rees describes Grey's colonial adventures and achievements, outlining how he became arguably the most influential figure during the nineteenth-century European settlement of New Zealand.

In 1865, following a two-year visit to Australia, the prolific English writer William Howitt published this two-volume account of the European exploration of Australia and New Zealand. Volume 1 includes the voyages of Abel Tasman and Captain Cook, and other explorers up to the 1840s including Fitzroy and Darwin.

John Lort Stokes (1812-85) was an officer on H.M.S. Beagle - the ship that had carried naturalist Charles Darwin. The ship's next commission was a survey of Australia, which lasted nearly six years, and Stokes published a two-volume account of it in 1846. Volume 1 covers exploration in north-west Australia.

An outspoken advocate of Australian republicanism, John Dunmore Lang (1799-1878) wrote this 1834 two-volume work to promote immigration and investment in his adopted country. Compiled during a voyage from New South Wales to Britain, the book illustrates the past history and present state of the New South Wales colony.

Well-known for his history of New Zealand, The Long White Cloud, the statesman William Pember Reeves (1857-1932) published this scholarly account of social legislation in 1902. The two volumes survey the radical and experimental laws in Australasia during this period, providing a candid assessment of colonial issues.

Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792-1855) was an acclaimed surveyor and explorer of Australia. In this illustrated two-volume work, based on his expedition journals and first published in 1838, Mitchell vividly describes the landscapes and peoples of the interior of Victoria and New South Wales between 1831 and 1836.

Timothy Coghlan was the statistician for the government of New South Wales from 1886, and is regarded as Australia's first 'mandarin'. This monumental book, first published in 1918, was the culmination of his life's work, and is a personal history of Australia embracing materials, trade, population growth and land.

English-born minister John West (1809-1873) moved to Tasmania in 1838 and became a critic of convict transportation. A supporter commissioned him to write this history, and the two volumes were published in 1852. Volume 1 describes the European settlement of the island.

George William Rusden (1819-1903) was born in England but spent most of his life in Australia. When he retired from the civil service he wrote this comprehensive - and controversial - work, published in 1883 in three volumes, covering the period from the initial settlement to the late nineteenth century.

In 1852, William Howitt arrived in Melbourne, the new and burgeoning capital of Victoria, and headed for the Australian goldfields. His lively description of the growing city, the huge numbers of prospectors and profiteers, and the hardships of travel and mining, was published in 1855 after his return to London.

Published in 1852, Louisa Meredith's two-volume work is an important document, both for the scope of its coverage and its significance in the history of women's non-fiction. It is also a valuable natural history work, with Meredith describing in great detail the flora and fauna of the island.

These English translations of first-hand accounts from the first Europeans to land on Easter Island were published in 1908. Their descriptions of the enormous moai make clear their wonder at the mysterious monolithic statues, and their incredulity that the inhabitants had the means to carve and move such structures.

These accounts, published in 1770-1 and reissued here in one volume, are of notable Iberian and Dutch voyages in the southern hemisphere. They were translated and edited by Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), who became the hydrographer to the Admiralty in 1795. The work includes a chronological table of discoveries since 1501.

The British journalist and mining expert John Baptist Austin (1827-96), who had moved to Adelaide as a young man, was fascinated by the gold rush in Victoria. This 1863 publication comprises a detailed account of South Australia's mining industry in the mid-nineteenth century.

Watkin Tench (c.1758-1833) was a member of the crew of the Charlotte, which was one of the eleven First Fleet ships of convicts destined for Botany Bay. This work, published in 1789, is an account of the six-month voyage to Australia and the early days of settlement.

William Saville-Kent (1845-1908) was a British naturalist and marine biologist who spent more than a decade as a fisheries expert in Australia. During his time there he made extensive surveys of the natural world, which form the basis for this richly illustrated work, first published in 1897.

Richard John Seddon (1845-1906) was New Zealand's longest-serving prime minister from 1893 until his death. Originally intended as a collaborative effort, this work by the journalist, naturalist and author James Drummond (1869-1940) was first published in 1907 and remained until 1955 the only full biography of Seddon.