Ahihi Beach, Maui, HI: December 2008.I pulled out some old photos of my Hawaiian trips after reading "Joseph Banks in Paradise" in Richard Holmes' fairly recent The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. I haven't been to Tahiti, but the chapter on Banks' forays into botany and anthropology in Tahiti alongside Captain Cook prompted thoughts of Pacific travel and enjoyment anyway.
I need to read The Fatal Impact next. Those poor, lovely islanders, objects of fascination and exploitation, doomed to decimation or worse by venereal disease and to corruption by Western culture. And yet, what lucky islanders, inhabitants of a paradise. What would it have been like to have been a sailor in one of those first ships? Scurvy and floggings, sure, but those island dances in the moonlight . . . .
Okay, back to work. There's a report to finish by tomorrow. No wonder I'm daydreaming.
