NIAU, Josephine Hyacinthe

The Phantom Paradise. The story of the expedition of the Marquis de Rays. Sydney, Angus & Robertson Limited, 1936. In-8 (216 x 138 mm) of XVIII, 189 pp. 14 plates in black. Blue cloth, smooth spine, linings with reproduction of a map (publisher's binding). First edition, written by the granddaughter of a family of survivors from the colony in Cape Breton, imagined by the Marquis of Rays and which met a tragic end. "Survivors from the Marquis de Rays' expedition, the terrible story of which with, naught extenuating, and naught setting down in malice, mademoiselle Niau has recorded in the pages of this remarkable book. The author's own parents were among the victims lured by the enterprising Marquis to leave their old home for what was represented as a new France set in a primeval paradise of the South Seas" (Thomas Courtney, introduction). Spine browned, some foxing. Autograph address "to M. A. Ellis, with the author's compliments. Joséphine Hyacinthe Niau".