Description:

Tahiti
n.p., June 18, 1789
Samuel Wallis, Probable 1st Tahiti Discovery, Naval Doc. Dated June 1789, Less Than 2 Months After "Mutiny on the Bounty"!
PPDS
A partly printed and partly manuscript document signed by Samuel Wallis (1728-1795), the British naval commander, navigator, and explorer, as "Saml Wallis" verso; Wallis was likely signing in his role as Extra Commissioner of the Navy, an administrative role he had accepted in 1780. June 18, 1789. N.p. On laid paper. Two other unidentified signers (probably fellow commissioners) signed along the bottom verso. Expected wear including even toning, flattened folds, and isolated edge darkening with a few wrinkles and closed tears. A closed tear affecting the "W" of Wallis's signature has been discretely professionally repaired. Else very good to near fine. 9.875" x 3.125."

The partly printed section of the document was clipped from a Royal Navy muster book and pertains to entry #813, the naval service of a 35-year-old Able Seaman named Thomas Tinsley who had served aboard "H.M.S. Barfleur" between October 1, 1788 and June 9, 1789, until he was discharged as "unserviceable." He was due nine months' wages minus £1:1:8 in value of "Slop-Cloaths supplied by [the] Navy." The manuscript section of the document co-signed by Wallis and two others directed agents in the Navy Office to compensate Tinsley: "To be paid out of Money received by the Right Hon'ble the Treasurer of His Majestys [sic] Navy for payment of Seamens [sic] Wages -."

Some 20 years earlier, in June 1767, Captain Wallis had probably been the first European navigator to make landfall on Tahiti aboard the "H.M.S. Dolphin." Wallis was a seasoned explorer who had over a decade of experience with sighting, charting, and making first contact in the Pacific Ocean. In what was easily his most celebrated expedition, Wallis renamed Tahiti "King George III's Island" in honor of Britain's reigning monarch and also renamed parts of the Society Islands, Tuamotu Islands, Marshall Islands, and the Mariana Islands. During the next two decades, the British returned several times to Tahiti and took increasing interest in its natural resource potential.

When Samuel Wallis signed this seaman's pay order on June 18, 1789, he could not have known that, just four days earlier, ex-commander of "H.M.S. Bounty" Captain William Bligh had arrived at Kupang Harbor in Timor to report the eponymous mutiny on April 28, 1789. The objective of Captain Bligh's voyage to Tahiti in 1787 had been to harvest breadfruit plants, a nutritious and economical foodstuff earmarked for enslaved persons. The "Bounty" crew had tarried in hospitable Tahiti for five months before leaving for England. About three weeks out from Tahiti, second-in-command Fletcher Christian successfully staged the mutiny and forced Captain Bligh and his supporters into an open boat. Fletcher and the mutineers aboard the "Bounty" fled to Tubuai, south of Tahiti, until it was considered safe to return to Tahiti once more in late September 1789.

We are proud to include items consigned by the Manuscript Society in this auction. These items come from the estate of well-known manuscript dealers Forest G. & Forest H. Sweet and Julia Sweet Newman. Forest G. Sweet was an early leader of the Manuscript Society as well as a rare book scholar. The proceeds from your purchase of these items will benefit the work of the Manuscript Society. You can learn more about them, and become a member of the Manuscript Society, at www.manuscript.org.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 9.875" x 3.125"
  • Medium: PPDS

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