Victoria University Press, 1992. Faded spine and cover, with fade marks where previous stickers have been.

Jules Sebastian Cesar Dumont d'Urville was one of the most illustrious of the early French visitors to New Zealand. The first of his three visits was in 1824, when the Coquille, of which he was second in command, spent a fortnight at the Bay of Islands. It was a short visit, but enough to inspire the first novel written with direct experience of the country and its inhabitants.