Captain Fowler went to the Pacific in 1868 as captain of the London Missionary Society vessel JOHN WILLIAMS III. He was dismissed in 1871 because of his treatment of Pacific Islanders. The logbook begins on 12 November 1868 when Captain Fowler left London. It continues to 25 February 1869 when the JOHN WILLIAMS III passed Jervis Bay, NSW. It resumes on 30 March 1869 when the JOHN WILLIAMS III left Sydney for a cruise to the Pacific Islands, which extended to Tahiti, back to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and then to Raiatea before returning to Sydney on 31 December 1869. The cruise took in Raiatea, Tahaa, Huahine, Tahiti, Mangaia, Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Niue, Pago Pago, Apia, Aneityum, Mare, Lifu, Uvea, Tubuai and Savai'i. The logbook resumes again on 4 April 1870 when the JOHN WILLIAMS III was at Huahine. Subsequent calls were made at Raiatea, Tahiti, Mangaia, Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Manihiki, Rakahanga, Pukapuka, Mitiaro, Mauke, Atiu, Tutuila, Niue, the Tokelau, Ellice (Tuvalu) and Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), the southern New Hebrides and the Loyalty Islands. The JOHN WILLIAMS III returned to Sydney on 20 December 1870. Captain Fowler returned to England in 1871 in the ship BUCKLEY CASTLE.

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.

The Reverend James L. Green (1833-1905) served as a missionary of the London Missionary Society in the Society Islands, French Polynesia, from 1861 to 1886. From May 1870 onwards, he was stationed on Tahiti, but made frequent visits to other islands.

The papers comprise:

• A diary for the period January 1, 1874 - December 29, 1879.
• Journal notes for July, 1884, to August 1886.
• A diary for the period November 12, 1884 to September 9, 1886.
• Four letters from the Rev. James Chalmers to Green, written from Rarotonga in 1875.
• Five letters from Chalmers to Green, written from Papua in 1880-84.
• Translations of two letters from a Tahitian missionary, Terai, to Green, written from Aloma, Papua, in 1882-83.

See also the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, August 1969:13, pp.1-5.

Charles Sarka (1879-1960) was born in Chicago. He began a career as an artist in his early teens; visited Egypt in 1902 and Tahiti and Moorea in 1903; and was a frequent contributor to such American magazines as Collier's, Scribner's, Cosmopolitan, Everybody's and Harper's in his later years. An exhibition of water colours which he did in Tahiti and Mo'orea was held in New York in 1963. Examples of his work were bought by some of America's leading art galleries.

Tahiti Nui' is a narrative of Sarka's life during his sojourn in Tahiti and Moorea in French Polynesia. See also an article by Robert Langdon in Pacific Islands Monthly, December, 1966, pp.93-97.

Carlos Garcia Palacios was born in Santiago, Chile, on 16 May 1898 and died in Tahiti on 1 May 1970. After studying in Switzerland, he represented his country in Geneva in the International Labour Organisation and the League of Nations. For several years after World War II he was a member of the United Nations Secretariat in New York. He was appointed honorary Chilean consul in Tahiti and spent the rest of his life there. He wrote numerous articles for newspapers and magazines throughout the world.

This is an English translation of a novel written in French in 1960 under the title Tane Api or l'Homme blanc repart toujours. The novel was not published. In his book Tahitiens (Paris, 1962), Father Patrick O'Reilly described it as a philosophic study, light-hearted in appearance, but of a deeper intent, describing the soul of the Tahitian women.

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.

A catalogue of the ethnographic items collected by the United States Exploring Expedition to the Pacific (1838-42) led by Commodore Charles Wilkes. The Expedition visited the Tuamotu Islands, Tahiti (in French Polynesia), Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Lord Howe Island, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), Marshall Islands, and Hawaii. The catalogue was prepared in 1846 by Titian Ramsay Peale, an artist-naturalist with the Expedition. A typescript version, prepared by the PMB, follows the original document on the microfilm. See also the Bureau's newsletter, Pambu, October-December 1971:25, pp. 4-7 and PMB MS 89 and MS 146.

Townsend and Moore were members of the US Fisheries Commission aboard the U.S. Fisheries Commission Steamer Albatross which made a cruise to the South Pacific in 1899 - 1900 under Commander Jefferson F. Moser, USN.

Ethnographic notes on the Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu Islands, Society Islands (French Polynesia), Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, Ellice Islands and Gilbert Islands (Tuvalu and Kiribati), Marshall Islands, and Caroline Islands.

Items on Pacific Islands from reports of annual and semi-annual conferences associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Church was active in French Polynesia, including Tahiti, Tuamotu Islands, and Tubuai, as well as Hawaiian Islands, Samoa and Tonga in the period covered.