"Morrison'sAccount of the Mutiny on the Bountyhas been known to scholars and students through Owen Rutter's 1935 edition. Smith and Thomas draw on all the relevant scholarship in the seventy-five years since this edition, as well as their own distinguished research and expert understanding of Pacific cultures, to provide readers with an impeccable work of scholarship that will be an essential point of reference for all future writing on Tahiti at the time of first contact as well as on theBountymutiny itself." -Rod Edmond, University of Kent"This book is a model work of scholarship. It shows how a critical edition can do more than just make a valuable text freshly available to readers; it can also illuminate an entire field of scholarship. Readers will be grateful for what Smith and Thomas have achieved in this painstaking, up-to-date presentation of Morrison's account of two subjects of lasting interest, theBountymutiny and Tahiti in the era of early contact." -Harry Liebersohn, University of IllinoisThe mutiny on theBountywas one of the most controversial events of eighteenth-century maritime history. This book publishes a full and absorbing narrative of the events by one of the participants, the boatswain's mate James Morrison, who tells the story of the mounting tensions over the course of the voyage out to Tahiti, the fascinating encounter with Polynesian culture there, and the shocking drama of the event itself.In the aftermath, Morrison was among those who tried to make a new life on Tahiti. In doing so, he gained a deeper understanding of Polynesian culture than any European who went on to write about the people of the island and their way of life before it was changed forever by Christianity and colonial contact. Morrison was not a professional scientist but a keen observer with a lively sympathy for Islanders. This is the most insightful and wide-ranging of early European accounts of Tahitian life.Mutiny and Aftermathis the first scholarly edition of this classic of Pacific history and anthropology. It is based directly on a close study of Morrison's original manuscript, one of the treasures of the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia. The editors assess and explain Morrison's observations of Islander culture and social relations, both on Tubuai in the Austral Islands and on Tahiti itself. The book fully identifies the Tahitian people and places that Morrison refers to and makes this remarkable text accessible for the first time to all those interested in an extraordinary chapter of early Pacific history.Vanessa Smithis Associate Professor in the Department of English, University of Sydney.Nicholas Thomasis Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Trinity College.