Table of Contents

Contents: General Editor's preface; Introduction; Exploration and trade: Nootka Sound and the beginning of Britain’s imperialism of free trade, Alan Frost; The North West Company’s 'Adventure to China', Barry M. Gough; Myth, science, and experience in the British construction of the Pacific, David Mackay; English attitudes to indigenous peoples of the Pacific, Glyndwr Williams; Licensed curiosity: Cook’s Pacific voyages, Nicholas Thomas; Colonies and Protectorates: The creation of imperial space in the Pacific Northwest, Daniel Clayton; The colonization of Vancouver Island, 1849-58, Richard Somerset Mackie; The first plans for governing New South Wales, 1786-87, Alan Atkinson; 'The idle and drunken won’t do there': poverty, the new Poor Law and 19th-century government-assisted emigration to Australia from the United Kingdom, Robin Haines; The impact of European settlement on the indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, and British Columbia: some comparative dimensions, Robin Fisher; Myth, race, and identity in New Zealand, James Belich; Towards colonial protectorates: the case of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Doug Munro and Stewart Firth; Culture, gender and environment: The hegemony of laughter: Purea’s theatre, Greg Dening; Missionary interest in British expansion in the South Pacific in the 19th century, Niel Gunson; Imperial benevolence: the Royal Navy and the South Pacific labour trade, 1867-1872, Jane Samson; Fear of culture: British regulation of Indian marriage in post-indenture Fiji, John D. Kelly; Putting down sisters and wives: Tongan women and colonization, Christine Ward Gailey; Pacific ecology and British imperialism, 1770-1970, J.R. McNeill; Index.

About the Author

Jane Samson, University of Alberta, Canada Alan Frost, Barry M. Gough, David Mackay, Glyndwr Williams, Nicholas Thomas, Daniel Clayton, Richard Somerset Mackie, Alan Atkinson, Robin Haines, Doug Munro, Stewart Firth, Greg Dening, Niel Gunson, Jane Samson, John D. Kelly, Christine Ward Gailey, J.R. McNeill.