Father Guinard spent 60 years from 1901 in Fiji as a priest of the Roman Catholic Mission. Forty-two years of his service were spent at Namosi. See also PMB MS 432.

The 'Histoires de Mission, pour enfants', written in a 250-page minute book, relate events in Father Guinard's career and observations on many aspects of life in Fiji. A typewritten version of Father Guinard's manuscript appears at the end of the microfilm.

Twelve inspection reports and one audit report of Burns Philp (South Sea) Company Ltd, Labasa Branch, Fiji, numbered and dated as follows:
Inspection Reports: No.1 - 20 July 1931; 2 - 11 October 1932; 3 - 21 October 1935; 4 - 20 July 1950; 5 - 27 January 1953; 6 - 27 January 1955; 7 - 8 August 1956; 8 - 29 July 1958; 9 - 14 September 1959; 10 - 17 August 1961; 11 - 27 August 1963; 12 - 9 September 1965.
Audit Report: No.1 - 13 March 1937.
The reports appear on the microfilm in the order given.

Alden was an officer in the sloop-of-war 'Vincennes', the flagship of the United States Exploring Expedition which spent four years in the Pacific under the command of Commodore Charles Wilkes.

The journal gives an account - but not a day-by-day account - of the Vincennes voyage which took in the Tuamotu Archipelago, Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, the Antarctic, Hawaii, the Gilbert (Kiribati), Ellice (Tuvalu) and Marshall Islands. See also PMB MS 124-146 and the Bureau's newsletter, Pambu, Dec. 1971:25, pp. 4-7.

The Labasa [Fiji] Branch of Burns Philp (South Sea) Co. Ltd. was established in 1920. Journal containing shipping and cargo details of the auxiliary cutter Koroibo.

Captain William L. Hudson was commander of the US ship Peacock, one of the vessels of the United States Exploring Expedition to the Pacific 1838-42, commanded by Commodore Charles Wilkes.

The journal begins on 20 August 1838 and is preceded by a list of the officers and scientific corps of the United States Exploring Expedition and correspondence relating to it. It continues to 8 August 1840 and includes copies of correspondence exchanged during the voyage. The journal and preceding papers fill 567 pages. On p.564 is a summary of the voyage showing the dates of arrival at various ports. Places visited in the Pacific were: The Tuamotu Islands, Tahiti, Samoa, Lord Howe Island, Tonga and Fiji.

The author, who is unknown, returned to France in 1929. See also PMB 432

A typescript of 78 pages - a history of the Catholic Church in Fiji (1846 - 1937).

See PMB MS 432, material relating to Roman Catholic Mission Fiji.

Letters from Superior-General, Society of Mary.

In 1836, Pope Gregory XVI was looking for missionaries for Oceania and approved the formation of a
religious institute, the Priests of the Society of Mary, or Marist Fathers. Jean-Claude Colin (1790-1875) was elected as the first Superior General and held the office until 1854. He was succeeded by Julien Favre (1854-85), Antoine Martin (1886-1905), and Jean-Claude Raffin (1905-22).

Dr William Henry Harvey was a botanist, becoming professor and chair of Botany at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, from 1856 until his death in 1866.

The letters, four in number, give vivid accounts of Dr Harvey's visits to Tonga and Fiji in the latter half of 1855 during the course of a world tour. The letters are addressed to Harvey's sister Hannah (Mrs Hannah Harvey Todhunter) and his niece Mary (Mary Christy Harvey). Dr Harvey was particularly interested in algae; but he also investigated other aspects of the natural history of Tonga and Fiji, and wrote at length of a religious revival in Tonga and cannibalism in Fiji. (Twenty-six other letters of Dr Harvey, dealing with other aspects of his world tour, which took in Gilbraltar, Malta, Ceylon, Australia and New Zealand, are deposited in the library of Trinity College, Dublin). See also the Bureau's newsletter PAMBU, March 1968: 8, pp.1-4.

Captain William Driver (1803-1886) was born Salem, Massachusetts, USA. He went to sea aged 14, and made his first voyage to Fiji in quest of beche-de-mer in September, 1872, in the ship Clay under Captain Benjamin Vanderford. He spent 49 months in the South Seas beche-de-mer trade before returning to Salem. Given command of the Charles Doggett, he sailed for the Pacific again in January, 1831. He remained at sea until 1837 when he retired to Nashville, Tennessee.

The logbook is for the voyage of the Charles Doggett. It begins on January 30, 1831, when the ship was 2,098 sea miles from Salem en route to New Zealand, and ends in March, 1832, when the ship was gathering a cargo of beche-de-mer in Fiji. In the interval, calls were made at Tubuai, Tahiti (French Polynesia), Pitcairn Island, Samoa, Tahiti and Niuatoputapu (Tonga). Driver's visit to Pitcairn Island from Tahiti was for the purpose of returning 65 descendants of the Bounty mutineers, who had been moved from Pitcairn to Tahiti four months earlier as it was feared that their island was becoming overpopulated. Driver describes this episode in some detail in an 1871 memoir accompanying his logbook of the Charles Doggett.
See also the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, December 1969:17.