From humble origins, and trained by the London Missionary Society in theology, printing and rudimentary medicine, William Ellis (1794 1872) sailed for the Society Islands in 1816. He found himself at the cusp of major cultural change as Western influences affected the indigenous Polynesians. During his time there, Ellis became a skilled linguist and able chronicler of the traditional yet rapidly shifting way of life. He succeeded in capturing vivid stories of a leisured people who, without written language, had developed a rich oral tradition, social structure and belief system. Published in...

From humble origins, and trained by the London Missionary Society in theology, printing and rudimentary medicine, William Ellis (1794 1872) sailed for the Society Islands in 1816. He found himself at the cusp of major cultural change as Western influences affected the indigenous Polynesians. During his time there, Ellis became a skilled linguist and able chronicler of the traditional yet rapidly shifting way of life. He succeeded in capturing vivid stories of a leisured people who, without written language, had developed a rich oral tradition, social structure and belief system. Published in...

The Prussian-born Protestant missionary Karl Friedrich August Gutzlaff (1803 51) sought to spread Christianity in the Far East. A gifted linguist, he sailed to Siam and worked on a translation of the Bible into Thai. The British missionary Robert Morrison had fired his interest in China, and Gutzlaff later focused his evangelising efforts there, learning several dialects and distributing translated literature. The present work, featuring an introductory chapter by fellow missionary William Ellis on Chinese attitudes to foreign influence, was first published in 1834. Gutzlaff had left Siam in...