4e de couv.: The journal of Samuel Stutchbury is a day-by-day account of a voyage in the 1820s to the pearl islands of the Tuamoto Archipelago, a little-known group lying eastward of Tahiti. It is the most vivid and detailed of the few surviving records of early 19th century pearling in the Pacific. It is the story of a commercial enterprise, supported by investors from the City of London and from Sydney, and based on the expertise of Colonial seamen, but enlivened by the scientific observations made by Stuchbury. Samuel Stuchbury was a young man of 27 when he ventured into this little know region which was of great interest to scientists. He was a man of many parts, in turn zoologist, geologist, botanist, doctor - interested in and informed about the whole range of natural phenomena which he encountered. His study of coral reefs certainly influenced Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin, and his papers on marine organisms caused controversy amongst English zoologists. While the main emphasis of the expedition was on matters in the central Pacific, there are interesting insights given in the journal into social and scientific aspects of life in New Zealand and New South Wales. Stuchbury's diary contains detailed observations of nature (including the weather), ships and captains, the activities of missionaries and traders, social structure and language in the Pacific.