Fatal Impact: An Account of the Invasion of the South Pacific, 1767-1840

First edition, first printing. 230pp, plus numerous black and white plate illustrations. Maps on endpapers. Green cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on red faux spine label. Top edge sprayed green. 8vo. Boards very lightly rounded at spine tips, small mild scratch on front panel. Previous owner’s name on half-title page, which also has a hint of toning, else internally neat, clean, bright and tight. In its original, illustrated dust jacket, a little bumped on edges, with small area with compression warping in top leading corner. Moorehead’s study of the invasion of the South Pacific centres on devastation of Tahiti, convicts sailing into Botany Bay, and the wealth of marine and bird life countering the killing of whales and the desolation of the coast of South Georgia; he looks at the arrival of so-called western civilisation and it coming up against the innocence of Tahiti, Australia and the Antarctic, and how corruption and annihilation led to disaster with, ironically, Cook – the most humane of explorers of his day – causing the fatal impact.