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A View in Matavai, Otaheite
hand-coloured aquatint; 29.3 x 43 cm
From the Pictorial Collection

According to Joppein and Smith in volume III of The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages 'Matavai Bay, by 1777, was the most famous place in the South Seas'. This depiction of a verdant and as yet unspoiled paradise bathed in early morning sunlight belies the grim fate that was to befall the people and culture of the Matavai 'district' of Otaheite with the arrival, in the 1790s, of the evangelising missionary (Captain James Wilson, who sought to impress upon the 'heathen' Tahitians - in the words ofJohn Griffin, author of the Memoirs of Captain James Wilson (London: 1815)-'the truth, superiority and excellency' of the Christian faith.

 

April 1999 Volume IX Number 7

COLLECTING KARMA

The National Library houses a wealth of Buddhist materials. Tina Faulk and Andrew Gosling survey the collection

TAXING THE POOR MAN'S LOAF

The language of economic theory may change but the issues don't. Paul Pickering revisits the debate over the British Corn Laws

PAPER TRAILS

Barry York delves into the papers of Australian historians to unearth some intriguing connections

A NEW WORLD OF STYLE

Penelope Layland looks at the new AusInfo online Style Manual

JOHN WEBBER'S PEOPLE AND PLACES

The travelling artist was very much an eighteenth-century phenomenon. Ed Duyker surveys the life of one who had a keen eye for exotic cultures

FRIENDS

A regular news page about the activities of the Friends of the National Library of Australia

NLA_PUBLICATIONS

Little Book of Birds

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