Autograph letter in the Tahitian language, written by a chief of Bora Bora to the LMS missionary, Rev. John Muggridge Orsmond. Bora Bora, 1822.

A$35,000 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Manuscript in brown ink on laid paper, 3 pp. on quarto bifolium, 175 x 150 mm; letter in the Tahitian language addressed to missionary Rev. John Orsmond at Tahiti, written entirely in the hand of an unidentified chief of Bora Bora, signed Porapora at the foot; undated, but probably 1822 (see below); traces of original folds, some marginal repairs to verso of last side, but well preserved; tipped onto archival paper, bound in modern marbled boards, along with a manuscript note dated 3 March 1826 written and signed by René Primevère Lesson, surgeon and naturalist on the Duperrey expedition, explaining that he is presenting the original letter (which had been given to him by Orsmond on Bora Bora) to Monsieur Berthevin, and stating that a French translation, together with a facsimile of the letter, has been published in the Journal des voyages (January 1826). A remarkable letter which manifestly demonstrates how rapidly and profoundly the Christian faith was able to penetrate an Eastern Polynesian society through the agency of the LMS missionaries in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Provenance: Rev. John Muggridge Orsmond (1788-1856) René Primevère Lesson, naturalist and surgeon (1794-1849) B. Berthevin (ownership monogram stamp in blue) Henri Ledoux private collection, Paris (ownership monogram stamp in red) Libairie Clavreuil, Paris TRANSLATION Here is our English translation of Orsmond s own French translation of the letter, published in Journal des voyages, number

• Binding: Hardcover

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