History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 23 Second d'Urville Expedition, 1831-1839
Levesque, Rodrigue (2003). History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 23 Second d'Urville Expedition, 1831-1839. 23. Gatineau, Québec: Lévesque Publications. ISBN 978-0-920201-23-7.
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Abstract: HOM.23 documents the period 1831–1839, combining extensive records from the second expedition of Jules Dumont d’Urville aboard the corvettes Astrolabe and Zélée with a large body of maritime and colonial documentation from the height of the Pacific whaling era. The volume draws on ship logs, official correspondence, missionary accounts, colonial reports, and eyewitness narratives from American, British, French, Spanish, and Russian observers. Much of the material centers on the Mariana Islands, especially Guam, Tinian, Saipan, and Rota, and on encounters across the wider Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, and Gilbert Islands. Early documents describe Spanish administration under officials such as José de Medinilla y Pineda and Francisco Ramón de Villalobos, including fortifications at Umatac, Apra Harbor, and Agaña, local censuses, reports on disease, agriculture, and trade, and lists of foreign residents in Guam. HOM.23 also traces the movements of whaling ships and trading vessels operating across Micronesia in the 1830s, including American and British ships such as the Derby, Montano, Caroline, Kent, and Peru. These records document visits to islands including Pohnpei, Chuuk (Hogoleu), Kosrae (Hope Island), Namorik, Bikini, Ngulu, and Nauru, and describe provisioning voyages, exchanges with island communities, navigation hazards, and the seasonal routes of the Pacific whale fishery. Logbooks and narratives record encounters with islanders, canoe travel, trade in coconuts, fish, and shells, and observations on navigation, language, and local customs. Several accounts describe maritime disasters and conflicts, including the shipwreck of the Mentor at Palau, the Ngatik massacre of 1837, and the killing of Captain Lawson of the ship Augustus, illustrating the volatile contact zone between visiting ships and island societies during this period of expanding maritime traffic. The later documents focus on the second d’Urville expedition (1837–1839) and related scientific observations, including reports by officers such as Duroch, Dubouzet, Rocquemaurel, and Guilou. These accounts describe surveys of Guam, ethnographic observations of Carolinian and Chamorro communities, and encounters with island groups across the Carolines and neighboring archipelagos. Missionary activity also appears prominently, particularly the work of Louis Désiré Maigret, Alexis Bachelot, and other Catholic missionaries operating in the region. Together these records connect local events in the Marianas and Carolines with the wider network of Pacific exploration, missionary expansion, and global maritime commerce linking Micronesia with Manila, Honolulu, Canton, and New England whaling ports during the 1830s.
