A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean

Book excerpt: Broughton, commander of the Providence, was ordered to the northwest coast of America to rejoin Vancouver, sailing via Australia (1795), Tahiti, and Hawaii (1796). Missing Vancouver he sailed to Monterey, California, then again to Hawaii and Japan, surveying the coast of Asia and Japan for 4 years. "Broughton's survey of the Northwest Coast of America was of great importance, and Great Britain based her 1846 claim to the Oregon Territory on this survey." In Hawaii he visited Kealakekua, Lahaina, Honolulu, Waimea, Kauai, and Niihau, and his narrative of this is particularly important for its account of Kamehameha's conquests of the islands and for his designs for Kauai. There are two issues of this work. One in Bishop Museum Library lacks the list of plates at the end of the text, as well as the plates and most of the maps, and "appears never to have had them. Presumably this was a later (or remainder?) issue"--Forbes, David W. Hawaiian national bibliography.