Lot 53: ELLIS, William (1794-1872). Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii or Owhyhee. London: H.

ELLIS, William (1794-1872). Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii or Owhyhee. London: H. Fisher, Son and P. Jackson, 1826. 8°. Folding map, 7 engraved plates (occasional light spotting, some light offsetting, ink staining on one leaf affecting a few letters). Modern green straight-grained morocco, gilt spine, gilt edges, box. FIRST EDITION 'of the first book written about the Hawaiian Islands and the first serious notice of the Islands since Captain Cook's discovery of them forty-eight years earlier. It may be called the first scientific book on Hawaii: although its main purpose was to report on mission progress, and Ellis was primarily interested in local manners and traditions, he was sufficiently expansive to include observations on such natural and cultural history topics as volcanoes, antiquities, and the anthropology of the islands' (Hill 545).

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