"John Williams was not the first London Missionary Society missionary to Polynesia, but his passion to conquer the whole Pacific region, and resolute belief that he knew better than the Directors in London how this vision might be achieved marked him out as an ambitious and aggressive man. Samoa, the setting of thses journals, was the last island group where Williams' personally introduced the gospel before he was murdered at Eromanga... Of the several journals kept by Williams during his pan-Polynesian travels, the two relating to his visits to Samoa in 1830 and 1832 are the most comprehensive and illuminating. In the course of both journeys Williams also visited Tonga, and provided graphic eye-witness accounts of contemporary Tongan and European life..."--Book jacket.

Reid, Daniel K. Richter, Rebecca Shumway, Sujit Sivasundaram, Nicole Ulrich

This book is a celebration of His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi’s intellectual and cultural legacy to Samoa, providing Tui Atua’s writings and thoughts on Samoan indigenous knowledge. It was first compiled and published as a festschrift in commemoration of his seventieth birthday. Tui Atua is Samoa’s Head of State and is currently the only holder of one of Samoa’s four pāpā (aristocratic chiefly) titles – Tui Atua. The book also contains responses from fourteen of Samoa’s leading and emerging scholars (including two Rhodes Scholars), based within and outside Samoa. The book searches for the best of what His Highness terms ‘the Samoan indigenous reference’ and enlarges our contemporary understandings of indigenous knowledge.

This narrative recounts the 18th and 19th century shipping out of Pacific islanders aboard European and American vessels, a kind of counter-exploring, that echoed the ancient voyages of settlement of their island ancestors.

Australian scholar Nicholas Thomas documents and analyzes "rhetorical artifacts" of explorers, missionaries, fiction and travel writers, and the people of the Pacific themselves to demonstrate how Oceanic identities have been represented over time. The picture Thomas paints of Oceania shows that interactions between indigenous cultures and European influences created entirely new Oceanic identities. 62 illustrations.

This anthology places the works of such well-known figures as Captain James Cook and Robert Louis Stevenson alongside the writings of lesser-known explorers, missionaries, beachcombers, and literary travellers who roamed the South Seas from the late 17th through the late 19th centuries.