DIBBLE (Sheldon).
History of the Sandwich Islands.
A RARE HAWAIIAN IMPRINT
This is the issue with the Honolulu version of the appendix. It does not have the four engravings issued after publication which are sometimes found included. This copy is especially interesting for its ownership annotation on the title which reads “A. B. Caufield H.M.S. Champion Honolulu 14th November 1843” No record of H.M.S. Champion’s visit is recorded, though she was on the Pacific station at this time.
“Sheldon Dibble’s history of Hawaii, the first full scale history printed in the Islands, is one of the most important documents of its time. Much of the history was derived from personal interviews and eyewitness accounts of events, and it gives details of events not easily found elsewhere” (Forbes).
It is one of the five hundred copies which were retained in Hawaii, a further hundred were shipped to Boston in sheets and bound there in black cloth.
Forbes 1383.
