OK let’s talk books and forget politics and our collapsing economy for a few minutes. The Gauguin painting in today’s Round Table posted by Phil got me thinking about this book I read several years ago—even though the author (first published 1839) only got to Hawaii, not Tahiti.
The book is
Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains, to the Columbia River by John Kirk Townsend, an ornithologist. He accompanied an early journey on the opened Lewis and Clark trail. He stopped at Fort Vancouver, took a sailing ship to Hawaii, then finished with a boat ride around Tierra del Fuego ultimately ending up back in the East Coast.
The writing style is a little stilted but it is hypnotically fascinating. He writes of the natives and wildlife he came across, visiting Hawaii in the early 1800’s, a revolution in South America he witnessed and other interesting things. Anyone curious to read in an eye witness account of those times should find the book wonderful. I know I did.
Link 
