Explorations of the South Seas, 1756–1792

The publication of key voyaging manuscripts has made significant contributions to scholarship. The publications translated and reproduced here reflect continuing academic demand for Pacific voyaging texts and context. Context is particularly significant as far as eighteenth-century British voyages of exploration to the Pacific are concerned: Charles de Brosses’ seminal work, Histoire des navigations aux terres australes (first published in 1756) set the international scene for imperial enterprise in the South Seas. Patel’s new translation of the de Brosses volumes is necessary if subsequent voyaging texts are to be accurately read.

As the impact of de Brosses’ writings was first being felt, HMS Dolphin – captained by Samuel Wallis – took to the seas. Wallis was the first Englishmen to come across what are today known as the Society Isles in the South Pacific, specifically Tahiti. Wallis did not write a journal like his successors but his logs may nevertheless be understood as key sources, in that they attest to the very first encounter between Europeans and Tahitians. Wallis wrote two accounts, neither of which was ever published. The first, unauthorised account of the voyage to the South Seas immediately following the Dolphin’s circumnavigation was Journal of a Voyage Around the World published in 1771. This journal is attributed to James Matra (midshipman on the Endeavour) and is the first unofficial account of Cook’s voyage (1768–1771).

These navigators and their texts, however imperfect, were instrumental in spurring on further exploration, annexation and finally colonization of these Pacific territories in the space of only a few decades. These new relationships encouraged competitive geopolitical but also commercial initiatives throughout Europe and voyaging accounts (perhaps of a different nature) abounded. The existing textual corpus is extensive, making it all the more surprising that French merchant-seamen Etienne Marchand’s journal of his voyage round the world in 1790–1792 has only been published (in French) in recent years. The final volume of this set will comprise an annotated translation of this document, with a view to encouraging further comparative study.

Contents

Volume 1
Translation of Charles de Brosses' Histoire des navigations I (1756)

Volume 2
Translation of Charles de Brosses' Histoire des navigations II (1756)

Volume 3
Samuel Wallis and George Robertson's logs of the Dolphin voyage (1766–8)
James Matra A Journal of a Voyage Around the World... (1771)

Volume 4
Etienne Marchand's journal of the Solide's voyage around the world (1790–2)

Related titles

• British Narratives of Exploration : Case Studies on the Self and Other
• The Indian and Pacific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, 1768–1820
• The Scientific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, 1765–1820
• Travels, Explorations and Empires, 1770–1835 : Travel Writings on North America, the Far East, North and South Poles and the Middle East

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