Voyage De La Perouse Autour du Monde by La Perouse - 1799

Voyage De La Perouse Autour Du Monde, Publié Conformément au Décret Du 22 Avril, 1791. Rédigé par M.L.A. Milet-Mureau London, Imprimerie d' A. Hamilton, 1799, 4to. 29cm & atlas 27x25.5cm, in three volumes. Vol 1: [frontis bound as frontis in the atlas] [iii]-1ii,539p., Vol.2: [iii]-viii,552,[18]p., (index). pp289-*296 & pp297-304; repeated. No half-titles. Vol 3: Atlas (frontis from Vol 1), engraved title-page, plus 31 engraved maps & 38 engraved plate views. [ie. 70 plates and maps, 49 foldings once, 21 large or double folding], expertly cleaned, repaired and restored, minor loss at the fold of one plate, contemporary small circular library stamps, rebound in nineteenth-century half black morocco, gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt titles, marbled boards, a fine attractive set.

Including the corresponding English language edition, published the same year- The Best Edition. They were unabridged and the Atlas contains the whole of the 69 plates issued with the original edition published in Paris in 1797. Stockdale's edition in English of 1798 only reproduced 51 of the plates, and Johnston s edition of the same year only 42. This edition of La Perouse has long been a very rare work, nearly all copies when found being imperfect. Henry Steven. Rare Americana. 1926. Cox. I:67. Printed in Paris first in 1797, other editions in French soon followed, of which this one, printed in London in 1799. The narrative of the enterprising but ill-fated La Perouse is full of interest in all portions, but his relations of the peculiarities he observed in the natives of the North West Coast of America are especially valuable. After leaving this place for the South Sea Islands, the Friendly or Tonga Islands, Norfolk Islands, and Botany Bay. In December 1787, twelve members of the expedition were murdered in the Samoan Islands. It was not until 1825 that Capt. Dillon discovered what was evidently the wreckage of La Perouse s vessels, the Astrolabe and Boussole, on the reefs of Vanikori, an island to the north of the New Hebrides.-Maggs, No. 491. Cox states in Vol 2, p.170, that the celebrated navigator La Perouse, captured Fort Albany, Hudson s Bay, and found the Manuscript of Samuel Hearne. The fort was afterward surrendered to the British, but La Perouse had already distinguished himself in the encounters at sea with English fleets, and in particular, with his capture of the English forts at the southern end of Hawaiian Islands. He next sighted the American coast near Cape St. Elias in Alaska. In this vicinity he lost twenty-one men who were drowned…He examined much of the fringe of islands lying off the Alaskan coast south, and continued his explorations down to Monterey Bay in California. His labors furnished geographers with results they could check against the charts of Russian, English and Spanish navigators. From California, he sailed across the Pacific and explored numerous island groups in the south seas. Howes L-93. Lada-Mocarski, Valerian. Bibliography of Books on Alaska, #52. La Perouse s voyage was an important French scientific expedition, in which a number of scientists and artists participated on two ships selected by the French Government. DCB p.282. The first European navigator to sail into the waters between China and Japan, La Perouse found the strait between Yezo and Sakhalin which bears his name before putting into Avacha Bay (USSR). The interpreter went ashore to return to France via Siberia, taking with him reports and maps prepared by his chief. La Perouse then sailed in the direction of the central Pacific on 9 Dec. He left Botany Bay about 15 March, and his two frigates were caught in a cyclone. His disappearance remained a mystery until 1826 when the Astrolabe was discovered. The remains of the Boussole was discovered in 1964. Hill p.173. Howes L93. Lada-Mocarski 52. Sabin 38960.