Melanesians And Polynesians Their Life Histories Described And Compared

Excerpt from Melanesians and Polynesians: Their Life-Histories Described and Compared MY acquaintance with the natives of the East and West Pacific extends over a term of forty eight years. During that time I resided in Samoa for fourteen years continuously, from 1860 to 1874, and I have often visited the group in later years. In 1875 I landed in New Britain, now named the Bismarck Archipel. At that time there was no white man living in the group, and practically nothing was known of those islands or of the people living there. I resided there until the end of 1880, with the exception of the time occupied by two visits to Australia, and I have revisited that group on several occasions since that time. My acquaintance with the great Solomon Islands group began in the year 1879, and since then I have visited the group on several occasions. During these many voyages I have visited Tonga, Fiji, New Hebrides, Santa Cruz, New Ireland, New Hanover, New Guinea, the large atolls of the Ontong Java and the Tasman groups, and many others of the smaller islands in the Pacific. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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The first comprehensive account to place the Pacific Islands, the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Ocean into the perspective of world history. A distinguished international team of historians provides a multidimensional account of the Pacific, its inhabitants and the lands within and around it over 50,000 years, with special attention to the peoples of Oceania. It providing chronological coverage along with analyses of themes such as the environment, migration and the economy; religion, law and science; race, gender and politics.

George Brown (1835-1917) was many things during his long life; leader in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Australasia, explorer, linguist, political activist, apologist for the missionary enterprise, amateur anthropologist, writer, constant traveller, collector of artefacts, photographer and stirrer. He saw himself, at heart, as a missionary. The islands of the Pacific Ocean were the scene of his endeavours, with extended periods lived in Samoa and the New Britain region of todays Papua New Guinea, followed by repeated visits to Tonga, Fiji, the Milne Bay region of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. It could be argued that while he was a missionary in the Pacific region he was not a pacific missionary. Brown gained unwanted notoriety for involvement in a violent confrontation at one point in his career, and lived through conflict in many contexts but he also frequently worked as a peace maker. Policies he helped shape on issues such as church union, indigenous leadership, representation by lay people and a wider role for women continue to influence Uniting Church in Australia and churches in the Pacific region. His name is still remembered with honour in several parts of the Pacific. Browns marriage to Sarah Lydia Wallis, daughter of pioneer missionaries to New Zealand, was long and rich. Each strengthened the other and they stand side by side in this account.