Author(s): Ian Cameron

Pacific Islands | Secondhand

The European seamen who explored the Pacific made some of the longest and most hazardous voyages in history.  They endured squalor, brutality, hunger and thirst and an appalling death rate. However, when they reached the islands of the central Pacific they were made welcome by people who offered them food, drink, shelter and sex and asked for nothing in return.

But within a century of de Bourgainville's landing, the people of the pacific islands had been decimated by deprivation, disease and the total collapse of their culture.

Using extensive use of contemporary diaries Cameron chronicles both the triumphs of the Pacific voyages and the tragedy of their aftermath. 

Very Good copy, with Dust jacket, contains a small amount of fading to cover. Small soil mark inside on back page.