This volume explores encounters, those encounters between indigenous peoples of the Pacific and foreigners during that longue durée of exploration, colonisation and settlement, from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century. By highlighting the idea of encounter we hope to stress the mutuality inherent in such meetings of bodies, and of minds. This is not to say that such encounters were moments of easy understanding or pacific exchanges. As many of the chapters in this volume attest, such encounters, from Quirós' sojourn in Espiritu Santo in 1606 (see Jolly 2007) to Australian patrols in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea from the late 1920s, were often occasions of tumultuous misunderstanding and extreme violence. But, even in the midst of massacre and revenge, there was a meeting of meanings, of bodies and minds, whereby pre-existing understandings, preconceptions from both sides of the encounter, were engaged, brought into confrontation and dialogue, mutual influence and ultimately mutual transformation. We thus prefer the notion of "encounter" to the more common sobriquet-"first contact"-for several reasons (see Connolly and Anderson 1987; Schieffelin and Crittenden 1991; and compare Ballard 2003 [1992]).

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's familiarity with Samoan studies (colonial history, political science) was of great help to me. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Dr Bruce Harding, Research Associate, who was kind enough to take a deep interest in my Samoan studies and who offered to undertake the heavy task of editing the awful Frenglish of the first draft of almost the whole book, and of designing, together with Moana Matthes, the cover. In all matters his generosity was beyond imagining. Many thanks to Moana Matthes for her hospitality towards the incoming scholars, as the administrative officer with responsibility for the Centre: it was much more than administrative hospitality, it was, every day, friendship and hospitality in the 'Pacific way'. My special thanks go to The Journal of Pacific History, Brij Lal, Peter Hempenstall, and Karen Nero who made possible the publication of this study, and to the various people who, in addition to Dr Harding, helped with translating and editing; in France, Karin Johnson-Sellato who did a preliminary editing of Part One and carefully translated into English the quotations from Lafond de Lurcy and from Dumont d'Urville; in Canberra, Dr Stephanie Anderson who translated chapter 9, and parts of chapter 10 and the Conclusion, all of which I had written in French, and then edited the whole final manuscript before it went to the JPH board; Jennifer Terrell for the final checking and formatting.