Missionary to Polynesia.“Third thousand”. Portrait frontispiece & 3 further tinted lithograph plates on 2 sheets. 8vo. Very fine original publisher’s blind-stamped ribbed cloth, spine (slightly faded) lettered in gilt. 10ads., 2ads., viii, 618pp. London, John Snow, 1843.
Williams was killed by native tribesmen on the island of Eromanga in the New Hebrides in November 1839 at the height of his Missionary career, soon after a successfull visit to England. His fame was therefore assured, and his book A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Seas, first published in 1837, became “the most popular work on the Pacific Islands since the Voyages of Captain Cook” (DNB).
