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The fatal impact : an account of the invasion of the South Pacific 1767-1840

Title: The fatal impact : an account of the invasion of the South Pacific 1767-1840 / by Alan Moorehead.
Author: Moorehead, Alan, 1910-1983
Publication: London : Penguin, 2000, ©1966.

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Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Book/Text	Use in library	DU20 .M66 2000	Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 230 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits; 22 cm.

Summary

"When Captain Cook made his landfall on Tahiti in 1769, the population was around 40,000; half a century later, the figure was down to 9,000. When Captain Phillip's first fleet of eleven ships carrying about 800 convicts sailed into Botany Bay in 1788, the aborigines were virtually the only human beings on the Australian continent; today they have been reduced to around 250,000 in a population of over 18 million. When Cook discovered South Georgia, he was amazed by the wealth of bird and marine life; in the ensuing fifty years the killing of whales and seals reached such a pitch that there was virtually nothing left to kill." "These three facts form the tragic basis of Alan Moorehead's classic study of the invasion of the South Pacific between 1767 and 1840. During those years Western civilization came up against primeval innocence in Tahiti, Australia and the Antarctic, and good intentions were to lead to disaster, corruption and annihilation. Ironically, in each case, it was the humane Captain Cook who was to cause the fatal impact."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Classic history

Uniform Title

Classic history

Subject

Note

Originally published: London : Hamish Hamilton, 1966.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN

0141390298
9780141390291

OCLC

ocm59555990
59555990
SCSB-1200880

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library