The Story of New Zealand. 2 Volumes

London: John Murray, 1859. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardcover. First Edition. Authored by Scottish military surgeon, medical scientist, writer, and historian Arthur Saunders Thomson (1816 - 1860). Published a year before his death at age 44, this work is generally considered to be the first scholarly history of New Zealand. During his (approximately) ten year residency working as surgeon in New Zealand, Thomson was unable to find a comprehensive history of the island, so he decided to write one himself. In his introduction he writes: "From personal observation, and materials culled from (various) sources, I have endeavoured to sketch the natural history of the country; to narrate the story of its people, their spiritual conquest, and the dawn of civilisation amongst them; to show how a few Anglo-Saxons planted and managed a colony in the midst of cannibals; and to describe their bygone dangers and difficulties, their present efforts to render a theoretical constitution practically useful, and the progress they have made in developing the resources of England's most distant colony."

Includes folding frontispiece, folding maps, and several full page illustrations. There is a repair to a tear in the folding map. Bound in olive green cloth covered boards with gilt titles, author, and volume numbers to spines. Minor bumping to corners, and minor wear to edges including chips to book cloth on the spine and rear of the first volume. One inch split to book cloth along rear joint of first volume. Light soiling to boards. Minor browning to interiors, mostly to margins. Occasional pencil markings and annotations. Light dampstain to top margins of second volume. Heavy foxing to endpapers as well as early and late pages, but only light and occasional foxing the bulk of the interiors. Volume I, 331 pages; Volume II, Appendix, Bibliography, Index, 368 pages. SOPAC/061225.