I had trouble rating this one. I settled on three stars, not because the story wasn’t interesting. The idea behind the expedition, and the journey itself, is a gripping story of history. But, as with many books written in this time, I struggle with some of the language re: race. While nothing in the book was overtly racist, there was certainly an undertone of the white savior complex that was uncomfortable at times. Also, the fact that the author was “scared to undo the work of the missionaries” while speaking to the natives made me roll my eyes back as far into my skull as they could go. So while an interesting piece of anthropological history, it occasionally gets bogged down with the author’s at-best questionable remarks. That being said, the book was published in 1950–I understand the differences of the language of today vs 70+ years ago. Keeping that in mind, I was still able to enjoy the story of the expedition and the culture of the Polynesian people.