They Came for Sandalwood

Overview

Few Pacific history books have stood the test of time as well as They Came for Sandalwood, but Dorothy Shineberg's book, first published in 1967, has never been bettered. This fascinating account of the sandalwood trade describes the first regular contact between Europeans and the Melanesians of New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, and the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). Shineberg studied the relationships and rivalries between European traders and European missionaries, between trader and trader, and between tribe and tribe among the indigenous peoples. Her book documents the details and color of these interactions. Unseaworthy ships, bloody battles, the hazards of sea and reef, and the firepower and inadequacies of European weapons all provide a gripping picture of the 1830s to 1860s. Valuable appendices list the ships involved, their cargoes and the location of the sandalwood stations. They Came for Sandalwood remains the only detailed account of the sandalwood trade, its routes, marketing problems and profits, and of the ships, merchants and seamen involved. It is a sharp, perceptive analysis of the confrontation of the two cultures, approached from the standpoint of Pacific history rather than a mere extension of European history into the PacificIslands.

Author Biography

Dorothy Shineberg has taught at the AustralianSchool of Pacific Administration, SmithCollege in Massachusetts, and the University of Melbourne. She is a former research fellow at the department of Pacific history at the Research School of Pacific Studies, AustralianNationalUniversity. She is a former coeditor of the Journal of Pacific History.