‘A Paradise of the Gods. Writings and Drawings of Handley Bathurst Sterndale.’ is an unpublished digital edition edited by J.J. Overell. In 1870, Handley Bathurst Sterndale worked as a surveyor on the island of Upolu, Samoa, for the German trading company Goddefroy & Sohn. In this capacity, he made an expedition across Upolu, making notes and sketches about the journey as he went. In 1871, on Motu Kotawa on the islet of Pukapuka atoll in the Cook Islands, he worked these notes into the manuscript ‘Upolu; or, A Paradise of the Gods’, and worked his sketches into finished drawings. Some accounts are not his first hand observations and others are demonstrably wrong. Sterndale sought to have the manuscript published, but was unsuccessful in finding a publisher before his death in 1878. After his death, it was listed in a catalogue among the publications of Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington of London, but the manuscript never made it to print.

The original notebooks have since been lost, but the surviving manuscript and drawings have been passed down to Sterndale’s descendants. This edition brings together edited excerpts from Sterndale’s original manuscript and is illustrated with his original drawings, which were digitised by photographer Rod Howe. It also includes a detailed introduction by editor J.J. Overell, and contextual chapters on the geology of Upolu, a chronology of Sterndale’s life and detailed appendices, including a complete transcript of the original manuscript.

Subjects covered by Sterndale include beachcombers, Samoan cultural beliefs and practices, civil conflict, diet, agriculture, wildlife, disease - amongst others. In addition to Upolu, Sterndale writes about Levuka in Fiji and Easter Island or Rapa Nui.

These documents originally formed part of the archives of the Samoan District Committee and later Samoan District Council of the London Missionary Society, and were formerly held at Malua, Western Samoa. The Samoan District Committee was replaced by the Council in 1928.

Correspondence of the Samoan District of the London Missionary Society with the New Zealand Administration, Samoa.

These documents originally formed part of the archives of the Samoan District Committee and later Samoan District Council of the London Missionary Society and were formerly held at Malua, Western Samoa. The Samoan District Committee was replaced by the Council in 1928

Correspondence of the Samoan District of the LMS with the German Administration of Samoa.

These documents originally formed part of the archives of the Samoan District Committee and later Samoan District Council of the London Missionary Society, and were formerly held at Malua, Western Samoa. The Samoan district Committee was replaced by the Council in 1928.

Correspondence of the Samoan District of the LMS with the LMS agent, Suva (Fiji).

These documents originally formed part of the archives of the Samoan District Committee and later Samoan District Council of the London Missionary Society, and were formerly held at Malua, Western Samoa. The Samoan District Committee was replaced by the Council in 1928.

Reel 1: Correspondence between the Samoan District of the LMS and LMS Stations in: Cook Islands, 1910-37 (English, local language); Gilbert and Ellice Islands (Tuvalu and Kiribati), 1877-1940 (some damaged) (English, Gilbertese); Niue, 1907-39; Tokelau Islands, 1907-42; Tutuila (American Samoa), 1908-47. Reel 2: Correspondence with American Samoa, 1908-47 (English, Samoan).

Eleanor J. Walker was a member of the Methodist mission at Dobu in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua New Guinea (then called British New Guinea). The mission was established in June 1891. For details, see George Brown, D.D., Pioneer Missionary and Explorer : An Autobiography, London, 1908, pp485-92.

The diary describes how the diarist came to join the mission and gives an account of her life at Dobu.

Minutes of Missionaries' Committee, 1929-1938 and Minutes of the Mission Council, 1935-1951, of the London Missionary Society (Samoan District)

Minutes of meetings of the Samoan District Committee of the London Missionary Society for December 1916 - February 1929

Minutes of meetings of the Samoan District Committee of the London Missionary Society for June 1836 - July 1851 and March 1898 - May 1905.

Walter Edward Gudgeon (1842-1920) succeeded F.J. Moss as British Resident in the Cook Islands in September 1898. On the annexation of those islands by New Zealand in 1901, he became the first Resident Commissioner. He held this post until 1909.
The papers are entitled:

1. The Activities of Walter Moss in the Pacific or the Eccentricities of a British Resident, (43 pp. typescript)
2. Cook Islands Maori Genealogical Tables (15pp. Mss and typescript)
3. The Kingdom in the Pacific (20 pp. typescript)
4. Letter to Lord Ranfurly of September 20, 1898 (3 pp. Mss)
5. The L.M.S. in the South Seas (6 pp. typescript)
6. The London Mission: Its Policy and Peculiarities (14 pp. typescript)
7. The London Mission Society in the Cook and Northern Islands (21 pp. typescript)
8. Message to the Cook Islands Parliament dated September 26, 1898 (3 pp. Mss).