Maria Graham - Booke About HMS Blonde's Famous Journey

Booke About HMS Blonde's Famous Journey

After her return from Brazil in 1825, her publisher, John Murray, asked her to write a book about the famous and recently completed voyage of HMS Blonde to the Sandwich Islands (as Hawaii was then known). King Kamehameha II of Hawaii and his Queen Kamamalu had been on a visit to London in 1824, when they both died of the measles, against which they had no immunity. HMS Blonde was commissioned by the British Government to return their bodies to the Hawaiian Islands, with George Anson Byron, a cousin of the poet Byron, in command. The resulting book, Voyage Of The H.M.S. Blonde To The Sandwich Islands, In The Years 1824-1825, contained a history of the exotic royal couple's unfortunate visit to London, a résumé of the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands and visits by British explorers, as well as the story about Blonde’s journey. Maria wrote it with the help of official papers and journals kept by the chaplain, R. Rowland Bloxam; there is also a short section based on the records of the naturalist Andrew Bloxam.