Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Series
  3. Cambridge Library Collection - History of Oceania

This series focuses on Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region from the arrival of European seafarers and missionaries to the early twentieth century. Contemporary accounts document the gradual development of the European settlements from penal colonies and whaling stations to thriving communities of farmers, miners and traders with fully-fledged administrative and legal systems. Particularly noteworthy are the descriptions of the indigenous peoples of the various islands, their customs and their differing interactions with the European settlers.

Refine search

Refine search

Content type:
Publication date:
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

107 results in Cambridge Library Collection - History of Oceania

Page 1 of 6

An Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean
  • Alexander Dalrymple
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 July 2015
  • This important collection, published in two volumes in 1770–1 and reissued here in one, contains accounts of notable Iberian and Dutch voyages in the southern hemisphere, translated and edited by Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808). Hydrographer to the Admiralty from 1795, Dalrymple produced this work as part of his research into the belief at the time that there existed an undiscovered continent in the South Pacific. These volumes were intended to demonstrate the knowledge of the region to date. The first volume covers sixteenth-century Spanish and Portuguese voyages, beginning with Ferdinand Magellan and including those of Juan Fernández, Álvaro de Mendaña y Neira and Pedro Fernandes de Queirós. The second volume contains the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch voyages of Jacob Le Mair and Willem Schouten, Abel Tasman and Jacob Roggeveen. This volume also contains a chronological table of discoveries in the southern hemisphere since 1501.

The Cruise of H.M.S. Galatea
  • Captain H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, K.G., in 1867–1868
  • John Milner, Oswald Walters Brierly
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    24 July 2014
  • In 1867, Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria's second son, commissioned the Galatea for a voyage around the world which would include the first royal visit to Australia. Stopping along the way in Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town, Alfred was received with great ceremony at each port of call. These visits provided the ship's chaplain John Milner (1822–97) and the artist Oswald Brierly (1817–94) with ample material for this chronicle, published in 1869, which gives background details of each region alongside scenes from the tour, enhanced by illustrations based on Brierly's sketches. The authors drew on various recollections and writings, including a letter from Alfred to his brother describing an elephant hunt in South Africa. The tour was abruptly curtailed in Sydney when a Fenian sympathiser attempted to assassinate the prince, an act which boosted support for the British royal family.

The Naturalist in Australia
  • William Saville-Kent
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    06 February 2014
  • Educated at King's College, London, the naturalist and marine biologist William Saville-Kent (1845–1908) went on to work at the British Museum and in aquariums at Brighton, Manchester and Westminster. He spent many years in Australia as a fisheries expert, and during this time he made extensive surveys of the natural world. The present work, first published in 1897, was intended to give a non-scientific audience a glimpse of the fantastic array of wildlife in Australia. The author discusses the many varieties of birds, lizards, fish and other sea life, insects (an entire chapter is devoted to termites), and vegetation. He was also able to take advantage of the photographic technology of the time and include around fifty collotype images, which complement the many other illustrations of the plants and animals he writes about, providing a vivid overview of the natural world in late nineteenth-century Australia.

Polynesian Researches during a Residence of Nearly Six Years in the South Sea Islands
  • Volume 2
  • William Ellis
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • From humble origins, and trained by the London Missionary Society in theology, printing and rudimentary medicine, William Ellis (1794–1872) sailed for the Society Islands in 1816. He found himself at the cusp of major cultural change as Western influences affected the indigenous Polynesians. During his time there, Ellis became a skilled linguist and able chronicler of the traditional yet rapidly shifting way of life. He succeeded in capturing vivid stories of a leisured people who, without written language, had developed a rich oral tradition, social structure and belief system. Published in 1829, this two-volume collection proved to be an important reference work, notably for its natural history; it soon accompanied Darwin aboard the Beagle. In Volume 2, Ellis moves between Huahine and Raiatea, giving further background on the existing customs and polytheistic rituals, contrasted with the introduction of Western religion, dress, schools, housing, medicine and law.

Polynesian Researches during a Residence of Nearly Six Years in the South Sea Islands
  • Volume 1
  • William Ellis
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • From humble origins, and trained by the London Missionary Society in theology, printing and rudimentary medicine, William Ellis (1794–1872) sailed for the Society Islands in 1816. He found himself at the cusp of major cultural change as Western influences affected the indigenous Polynesians. During his time there, Ellis became a skilled linguist and able chronicler of the traditional yet rapidly shifting way of life. He succeeded in capturing vivid stories of a leisured people who, without written language, had developed a rich oral tradition, social structure and belief system. Published in 1829, this two-volume collection proved to be an important reference work, notably for its natural history; it soon accompanied Darwin aboard the Beagle. Volume 1 covers the voyage to Tahiti, the development of Tahitian orthography, the conversion of chief Pomare II, the establishment of a printing press on Moorea, and Ellis's first sermon in Tahitian, delivered on Huahine.

Australia and New Zealand
  • Volume 2
  • Anthony Trollope
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • One of the most celebrated and prolific authors of the Victorian era, Anthony Trollope (1815–82) was also an enthusiastic traveller. This two-volume work recounts his two-year journey across Britain's colonies in the Antipodes. First published in 1873, it celebrates the success of British colonisation, but also considers with pragmatic foresight the inevitable unification of the Australian territories and their desire for greater independence. In Volume 2, Trollope describes his travels through Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia and New Zealand. He supplements his travelogue with maps and a section on Australian institutions. He also tells of his unsuccessful foray into kangaroo hunting, showcasing his wit and appetite for adventure. North America (1862), Trollope's account of the continent during the American Civil War, and his An Autobiography (1883) are also reissued in this series.

Australia and New Zealand
  • Volume 1
  • Anthony Trollope
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • One of the most celebrated and prolific authors of the Victorian era, Anthony Trollope (1815–82) was also an enthusiastic traveller. This two-volume work recounts his two-year journey across Britain's colonies in the Antipodes. First published in 1873, it celebrates the success of British colonisation, but also considers with pragmatic foresight the inevitable unification of the Australian territories and their desire for greater independence. Volume 1 covers Trollope's travels through Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Each section addresses the history and governance of the relevant state, assessing also the current condition of the region's institutions, people and resources. In the process, Trollope informs his reader about everything from the temperament of Aboriginal Australians to the troubles of travelling by steamboat. North America (1862), his account of the continent during the American Civil War, and his An Autobiography (1883) are also reissued in this series.

Travels in New Zealand
  • With Contributions to the Geography, Geology, Botany, and Natural History of that Country
  • Volume 1
  • Ernst Dieffenbach
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • As a surgeon and naturalist for the New Zealand Company, Ernst Dieffenbach (1811–55) travelled widely in the North Island between 1839 and 1841. He was the first European to successfully scale Mount Egmont (or Taranaki), and he also visited the natural wonders of the Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana, which were later destroyed in a volcanic eruption. First published in 1843, this two-volume work describes the landscapes, flora and fauna in a highly readable style. In Volume 1, Dieffenbach recounts his sea journeys through Cook Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound, along with his excursions deep into the North Island. There is also a thorough account of his ambitious climb to the snowy summit of Mount Egmont. His passages relating to the people he encountered also give an insight into the lives of the native islanders. This volume includes illustrations of Lake Taupo, Mount Egmont and Mount Ruapehu.

Travels in New Zealand
  • With Contributions to the Geography, Geology, Botany, and Natural History of that Country
  • Volume 2
  • Ernst Dieffenbach
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • As a surgeon and naturalist for the New Zealand Company, Ernst Dieffenbach (1811–55) travelled widely in the North Island between 1839 and 1841. He was the first European to successfully scale Mount Egmont (or Taranaki), and he also visited the natural wonders of the Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana, which were later destroyed in a volcanic eruption. First published in 1843, this two-volume work describes the landscapes, flora and fauna in a highly readable style. Volume 2 focuses on the Maori inhabitants of the island, for whom Dieffenbach had a respect and admiration that was unusual for the time. He writes about their customs, such as hunting techniques, burial practices and the tradition of facial tattooing. He also provides examples of Maori language, including songs and simple phrases. The final section of the work comprises a short grammar and dictionary.

The Treaty of Waitangi
  • How New Zealand Became a British Colony
  • T. Lindsay Buick
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1933
  • Thomas Lindsay Buick (1865–1938) became interested in New Zealand history while working as a political journalist in Wellington, and became an influential figure in the field. He went on to write twelve books and numerous pamphlets on the early history of the country and was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1914. In this book Buick recounts the events leading up to the Treaty of Waitangi, the controversial document signed by British officials and Maori chiefs which ceded New Zealand to the British Empire in 1840. Buick claims that the need for a formal handover of authority to Britain arose from the rowdy misdeeds of sealers, whalers, and escaped convicts from Australia, who needed to be kept in check. The work was first published in 1914; the revised edition reissued here appeared in 1933, and a third edition was published in 1936.

The French at Akaroa
  • An Adventure in Colonization
  • T. Lindsay Buick
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1928
  • Thomas Lindsay Buick (1865–1938) became interested in New Zealand history while working as a political journalist in Wellington, and became an influential figure in the field. He went on to write twelve books and numerous pamphlets on the early history of the country and was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1914. First published in Wellington in 1928, this work describes the history of Akaroa in the South Island, a small settlement on the Banks Peninsula founded by French settlers in 1840. In the same year, New Zealand became part of the British Empire, and much of Buick's account focuses on the interaction and disputes between the French and British settlers. The book, which was published under the auspices of the Board of Maori Ethnological Research, also includes the history of the local Maori tribes.

New Zealand's First War
  • Or, the Rebellion of Hone Heke
  • T. Lindsay Buick
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1926
  • Thomas Lindsay Buick (1865–1938) became interested in New Zealand history while working as a political journalist in Wellington, and became an influential figure in the field. He wrote twelve books and numerous pamphlets on the early history of the country and was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1914. This book, first published in Wellington in 1926, describes one of the most significant conflicts in nineteenth-century New Zealand, the Flagstaff War (1845–6), in which European settlers and their Maori supporters fought those Maori who were resisting colonial encroachment. A key figure during the war was the Nga Puhi chief Hone Heke, from the Bay of Islands, who famously refused to acknowledge British sovereignty and repeatedly felled the British flagpole in Kororareka. Buick's account probes the complex relationships among the warring factions, describes the individual phases of the war, and explains how peace was eventually restored.

Labour and Industry in Australia
  • From the First Settlement in 1788 to the Establishment of the Commonwealth in 1901
  • Volume 1
  • T. A. Coghlan
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    02 May 2011
    First published in:
    1918
  • Sir Timothy Coghlan (1855–1926) was the statistician for New South Wales from 1886. He produced the world's first example of national financial accounts, and is regarded as Australia's first 'mandarin'. His advice was sought by state and federal governments on matters as diverse as tax, public sanitation and infant mortality. In 1905 he took up an appointment as a New South Wales government agent in London, remaining there for the rest of his life. First published in 1918, this monumental book is Coghlan's very personal history of Australia, embracing materials, population growth, trade and land. Population growth and its importance for economic prosperity had always interested Coghlan. In Volume 1, he emphasizes the initial difficulties presented to economic growth by a population consisting mostly of convicts. With many statistical data, he also explores early immigration, trade, land distribution and attempts at agriculture.

Labour and Industry in Australia
  • From the First Settlement in 1788 to the Establishment of the Commonwealth in 1901
  • Volume 4
  • T. A. Coghlan
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 May 2011
    First published in:
    1918
  • Sir Timothy Coghlan (1855–1926) was the statistician for New South Wales from 1886. He produced the world's first example of national financial accounts, and is regarded as Australia's first 'mandarin'. His advice was sought by state and federal governments on matters as diverse as tax, public sanitation and infant mortality. In 1905 he took up an appointment as a New South Wales government agent in London, remaining there for the rest of his life. First published in 1918, this monumental book is Coghlan's very personal history of Australia, embracing materials, population growth, trade and land. In Volume 4 Coghlan discusses in depth the foundation of the Australian Labor Party, which came after a series of devastating strikes in the 1890s. The recovery from depression and crisis, and the growing move towards federation, are also examined, alongside the recurrent themes of immigration, land and industry.

Labour and Industry in Australia
  • From the First Settlement in 1788 to the Establishment of the Commonwealth in 1901
  • Volume 2
  • T. A. Coghlan
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    02 May 2011
    First published in:
    1918
  • Sir Timothy Coghlan (1855–1926) was the statistician for New South Wales from 1886. He produced the world's first example of national financial accounts, and is regarded as Australia's first 'mandarin'. His advice was sought by state and federal governments on matters as diverse as tax, public sanitation and infant mortality. In 1905 he took up an appointment as a New South Wales government agent in London, remaining there for the rest of his life. First published in 1918, this monumental book is Coghlan's very personal history of Australia, embracing materials, population growth, trade and land. In Volume 2, covering the period to the late 1860s, Coghlan again highlights population growth, and in particular the role of the state and colonies in organizing immigration, as a key factor in the development of the economy. A theme throughout this volume is the growing independence and confidence of each individual state.

Labour and Industry in Australia
  • From the First Settlement in 1788 to the Establishment of the Commonwealth in 1901
  • Volume 3
  • T. A. Coghlan
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    02 May 2011
    First published in:
    1918
  • Sir Timothy Coghlan (1855–1926) was the statistician for New South Wales from 1886. He produced the world's first example of national financial accounts, and is regarded as Australia's first 'mandarin'. His advice was sought by state and federal governments on matters as diverse as tax, public sanitation and infant mortality. In 1905 he took up an appointment as a New South Wales government agent in London, remaining there for the rest of his life. First published in 1918, this monumental book is Coghlan's very personal history of Australia, embracing materials, population growth, trade and land. Volume 3 covers a turbulent period. Coghlan examines the depression of the 1890s and the banking crisis of 1893, which saw the Federal Bank fail. He also devotes a large section to detailing labour and wages in this period, which saw the unprecedented Maritime Strike of 1890.

The Life of Sir Frederick Weld, G.C.M.G.
  • A Pioneer of Empire
  • Alice Lovat
  • Preface by Hugh Clifford
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1914
  • Written in 1914 by Alice, Lady Lovat (1846–1938), a cousin, this biography of Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld (1823–91) is characterised by its subtitle, 'a pioneer of empire'. The young Weld emigrated to New Zealand with a cousin to establish sheep stations. Entering politics, he became Minister for Native Affairs and then Premier; his Native Rights Act of 1865 redressed many of the grievances which had led to the Maori Wars. In 1868 he was appointed Governor of Western Australia, where he brought in a degree of representative government and helped develop the telegraph and transport infrastructure. In 1874 he became Governor of Tasmania, and in 1880 was promoted to the Straits Settlements, where his period as a colonial administrator was notable for the increase of British influence among the princely rulers of the Malay States. Retiring in 1887 for health reasons, he died in England in 1891.

Terre Napoléon
  • A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia
  • Ernest Scott
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    05 May 2011
    First published in:
    1910
  • Ernest Scott (1867–1939) emigrated to Australia in 1892, settling in Melbourne where he worked as a journalist. In 1913 he was appointed Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. This volume, first published in 1910, discusses the aims and outcome of the survey of the south Australian coast performed by Nicholas Baudin's French expedition between 1800 and 1804, and established Scott's reputation as a historian. Scott traces the path of Baudin's expedition along the then unexplored south coast of Australia, estimating the amount of original surveying performed by the expedition to address the accusation that the French expedition plagiarised British surveys of the same coastline. Scott also discusses the origins of the expedition to investigate possible political motivations behind the survey. This detailed and meticulously researched volume presents a valuable revised view of Baudin's expedition.

Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century
  • The Struggle of the Northern against the Southern Maori Tribes Prior to the Colonisation of New Zealand in 1840
  • S. Percy Smith
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1910
  • Stephenson Percy Smith (1840–1922) arrived in New Zealand as a boy, and in early 1858 travelled six hundred miles exploring the volcanic interior of North Island, including Taupo, Lake Tarawera and the Tongariro-Ruapehu area, returning via Rangitikei and Wanganui. He also witnessed the unrest caused by the rapid European encroachment on Maori lands. After retiring in 1900 from his career as a government surveyor, Smith devoted himself to the study of the Maori and co-founded the Polynesian Society, in whose journal this study originally appeared between 1899 and 1901. Reissued here in its enlarged second edition of 1910, it deals with the inter-tribal 'Musket Wars' of the early nineteenth century, when different Maori communities competed for territory shortly before European settlement began in earnest. Although Smith's interpretations do not meet modern scholarly standards, his pioneering work still provides fascinating insights into nineteenth-century Maori traditions and their colonial reception.

Murihiku
  • A History of the South Island of New Zealand and the Islands Adjacent and Lying to the South, from 1642 to 1835
  • Robert McNab
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    10 November 2011
    First published in:
    1909
  • Robert McNab (1864–1917), lawyer, politician, and historian, was one of the most prominent and influential of New Zealand's early intellectuals, renowned for his meticulous gathering of historical resources. The result of nine years of painstaking research, this book was developed from a series of articles on Southland history published in the newspaper Southern Standard in the late 1890s. Murihiku spans the history of European exploration and settlement in the South Island, from the voyages of Abel Tasman and Captain Cook to the arrival of the sealers, whalers, missionaries, and the early settlers in the years leading up the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The book was first published in 1905. After extensive research in archives in Australia, the USA, and Britain, McNab produced a more substantial edition in 1907. This third edition appeared in 1909. McNab was elected fellow of the Royal Geographical society in 1908.

Page 1 of 6