Narrative of a Voyage Round the World

Narrative of a Voyage Round the World
Author: Sir Edward Belcher
Publisher:
Total Pages: 530
Release: 1843
Genre: China
ISBN:

Captain Edward Belcher (1799-1877) served on, or was in command of, numerous surveys of the coasts of Northern and Western Africa, Ireland, Western America, China, Borneo, the Phillipines, and Formosa. In 1852, he commanded the expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. Belcher's account of his circumnavigation commences in February, 1837, in Panama, when he took command of the Royal Navy Ship Sulphur and, together with the RNS Starling, sailed northward to Central America, thence to the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii]. They then sailed back to North America, exploring the Vancouver Island area, then to San Francisco, and south down the coasts of California, and Central America, back to Panama. In 1838, Belcher headed back north, largely repeating the previous cruise, with more stops. Belcher then set sail across the Pacific, visiting Tahiti, Tonga, the New Hebrides, and today's Indonesia. He was then ordered to China, and took part in the naval operations there. Returned to England, via Singapore, Sumatra, Ceylon, Madagascar. Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena and Ascension -- ABE Books.

Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands

Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands
Author: Max Quanchi
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2005-10-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0810865289

The South Seas, as this region used to be called, conjured up images of adventure, belles and savages, romance and fabulous fortunes, but the long voyages of discovery and exploration of the vast Pacific Ocean were really an exercise in amazing logistics, navigation, hard grit, shipwreck and pure luck. The motivations were scientific and geographic, but at the same time nationalistic and materialistic. A series on global exploration and discovery would not be complete without this book by Quanchi and Robson. It is ambitious and informative and includes the familiar names of Laperouse, Bougainville, Cook and Dampier, as well as the intriguing stories of the Bounty Mutiny, scurvy, and the mysterious Northwest Passage, Terra Australis Ignotia and Davis Land. There are entries on first contacts, ships, navigational instruments, mapping, and botany. The scene is carefully set in the introduction, the chronology spans several centuries, and the extensive bibliography offers a guide to further reading. There are more than just dry facts in this book. It has a whiff of salt air, the clash of empires, cross-cultural beach encounters and personal adventure.

The Canton Trade

The Canton Trade
Author: Paul A. Van Dyke
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2005-12-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9622097499

This study utilizes a wide range of new source materials to reconstruct the day-to-day operations of the port of Canton during the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Using a bottom-up approach, it provides a fresh look at the successes and failures of the trade by focusing on the practices and procedures rather than on the official policies and protocols. The narrative, however, reads like a story as the author unravels the daily lives of all the players from sampan operators, pilots, compradors and linguists, to country traders, supercargoes, Hong merchants and customs officials. New areas to studies of this kind are covered as well, such as Armenians, junk traders and rice traders, all of whom played intricate roles in moving the commerce forward. The Canton Trade shows that contrary to popular belief, the trade was stable, predictable and secure, with many incentives built into the policies to encourage it to grow. The huge expansion of trade was, in fact, one of the factors that contributed to its collapse as the increase in revenues blinded government officials to the long-term deterioration of the lower administrative echelons. In the end, the system was toppled, but that happened mainly because it had already defeated itself. General readers and academicians interested in world and Asian history, trading companies, country trade, Hong merchants, and articles of trade will find much new and relevant information here.