The Farthest Corner: New Zealand a twice discovered land By Harry Morton & Carol Morton Johnston

This authoritative account discusses the likely nature of the `Fleet' traditionally held to have brought the first Polynesians; and with a wealth of personal anecdote drawn from letters and journals it provides a fascinating insight into the wide assortment of missionaries, scientists, surveyors, mountaineers, farmers and others who moved through dense bush, across rivers and mountain ranges, both with and without Maori guidance, in the interests of commerce, communication, religion, science and sheer adventure.

The text is supported by a series of features which highlight the practical details of survival in the alien land, and the demands which it placed upon human endurance and ingenuity. Topics covered include the Polynesian languages, the moa, greenstone, ships' logs, Maori pa, Russian explorers, scurvy and `spruce beer', birds as food, triangulation, missionary rivalries, the Treaty of Waitangi, and the notorious sheep-thief Mackenzie.

This book will become essential reading for anyone interested in New Zealand history, and in the history of exploration and colonisation in the Pacific.

A good clean copy, some sun fading on spine of dust jacket.