A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. PERFORMED BY ORDER OF HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY, IN THE YEARS 1766, 1767, 1768, AND 1769.
Bougainville, Louis Antoine:
London. 1772. xxviii,476pp. plus folding plate and five folding maps. Quarto. Contemporary marbled boards and calf-tipped corners, rebacked with antique style gilt-tooled calf, preserving original gilt morocco label. Corners worn, outer hinges lightly worn. Some slight offsetting from the maps, a few very light fox marks, but on the whole internally very clean and neat. A very good copy, with the bookplate of Hugo Meynell on the front pastedown. First English edition, translated from the French by John Reinhold Forster, who calls this "a work written by a learned, intelligent, and judicious traveller, which abounds with remarkable events and curious observations...." Bougainville first undertook, at his own expense, an expedition to the Falkland Islands and Patagonia to secure them for French colonization. To avoid potential conflict due to Spain's envy of the acquisition, France gave up the territory to her. The narrative of that expedition was related in THE HISTORY OF A VOYAGE TO THE MALOUINE ISLANDS... (Paris, 1770). After delivering the Falklands to Spain, Bougainville was ordered across the Pacific to the East Indies, and from there to return home. The narrative of this part of the voyage comprises the text of the present volume. The completion of the three-year voyage marked the first official French circumnavigation and drew a good deal of French interest in the Pacific islands. The party collected much natural history information concerning the regions visited, with a chapter on that of the Falklands, as well as a history of their settlement. They stopped at many South Sea islands, among them Tahiti, and a long section on that island is included, as well as a vocabulary of the natives. Bougainville was in Buenos Aires when the order arrived for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Paraguay, which he describes in detail. COX I, p.55. SABIN 6869. HILL 165. O'REILLY & REITMAN 285.
(Item ID: WRCAM7284A) $4,250.00