History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 19 The Freycinet Expedition, 1818-19

Levesque, Rodrigue. History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 19 The Freycinet Expedition, 1818-19. 19. Gatineau, Québec: Lévesque Publications. ISBN 978-0-920201-19-0.

Abstract: Volume 19 (HOM.19) contains 14 documents from 1818, plus extracts from four books about the Freycinet expedition of 1819, with 50 illustrations. The French scientific expedition led by Captain Freycinet was the most thorough to visit Micronesia ever. Its 12-volume official report includes information about life there up to 1819: history, anthropology, sociology, native customs, industry, commerce, flora and fauna, linguistics, etc. Captain Freycinet’s narrative is given here in full; it includes special reports by many of its officers, notably Lamarche, Berard, Doctors Quoy and Gaimard. So are the letters of his wife who was part of the crew, and the letters of Jacques Arago, the artist. Arago’s book is also reproduced; it is a poetic rendering that reads like a historical novel. The contents of HOM were compiled, translated, edited and annotated by Rodrigue Levesque. Rod located and made novel translations of thousands of documents between 1992 and 2002. These were organized in forty massive volumes, with only the first twenty being printed in physical, hardbound form. In 2022, the US nonprofit Habele obtained the copyrights to the full History of Micronesia series with the aim of offering free and navigable access to the public.