Travelogues: The Pacific
Travelogues feature among the mostly studied primary and secondary sources in researching contacts and interactions between Western travellers and indigenous societies. In many cases, they provide unique insights into these encounters, and often they represent the only windows for studying approaches to and consequences of such intercultural meetings.
Inevitably skewed toward the culture of Western travellers, travelogues often contain important observations and data on native societies. Since many of such communities were subsequently deeply altered, travel reports are highly coveted for their potential to contribute to reconstructing the types and characteristics of aboriginal communities.
IDC Publishers has now selected travel reports by missionaries and others who travelled the Pacific in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
