An important early account of Hawaii by a visiting group of London missionaries in company with Rev. William Ellis (1794-1872). Ellis, a British missionary, established the first printing press in the South Seas, and while on Hawaii, he and Hiram Bingham printed the first book there in 1823, a hymnal. "Rev. Ellis and three of the American missionaries, Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich, were dispatched for the purpose [to learn more of the Hawaiian people with a view to establishing mission stations in Hawaii] in June, 1823, landing at Kailua and spending two months in making the circuit of the island. They were the first white men to visit the volcano of Kilauea. Upon the return of the party to Honolulu, a joint Journal of the expedition and observations was prepared by Ellis. Copies of this, together with a report by the American missionaries, were printed in Boston in 1825..." (Hill). The handsome engraved plates depict Kuakini, governor of Hawaii; a missionary preaching to natives; the great crater at Kilauea; the burial house of Keave; and Makoa, a guide to the deputation of missionaries. The map of Hawaii is improved from that of Vancouver. The appendix contains biographical information about persons mentioned in the text, geographical data, names of the former gods of Hawaii, and an alphabet and vocabulary of the Hawaiian language. Ellis later rewrote portions of this work, adding further observations, which were published collectively the following year in London as 'Narrative of a Tour Through Hawaii'.