Chalmers, James (1841 - 1901)

Adventures in New Guinea [Pacific Exploration; Missionary Travel]

London: The Religious Tract Society, 1889.

A lively late-Victorian missionary and exploration narrative, recounting James Chalmers’s field work, travels, and first-hand encounters in New Guinea—one of the most detailed early European accounts of the island and its people.

Decorated boards with gilt title band. Bindings firm. Lower corners rubbed. Previous owner’s name on flyleaf. Closed tear at top of page 192 (last page). Text clean with light, even toning; occasional minor staining. Early Edition. Six engraved illustrations including the frontispiece. 192 pages. 16mo (5.75 inches tall).

James Chalmers (1841–1901) was a Scottish missionary whose work in the Pacific made him one of the most active and widely traveled observers of New Guinea in the late nineteenth century. After sailing to Australia aboard the missionary vessel John Williams in 1866, Chalmers undertook years of field labor, learning local languages, reporting on cultural practices, and working to influence social reforms among already partially Christianized communities.

His later assignment to New Guinea in 1877 brought him into direct contact with regions still largely unknown to Europeans. There he produced a monthly newspaper, conducted extensive inland and coastal explorations, and documented indigenous customs, geography, and trade networks with unusual detail. Chalmers’s writings remain a significant primary source for Pacific scholarship, missionary history, and nineteenth-century anthropological study.

Subjects: Pacific exploration; Missionary travel; New Guinea ethnography; Nineteenth-century exploration narratives; Victorian missionary history.

Ref: OCLC 8587511; Missiologyorguk; Trompf 1324.

Item #21316

Price: $125.00