A Voyage round the World, In His Majesty's ship The Dolphin, Commanded by the Honourable Commodore Byron. In which is Contained, A faithful Account of several Places, People, Plants, Animals, &c. seen on the Voyage:

London: J Newbery, F Newbery, 1767 A fair copy of the 1st edition of Commodore Byron's circumnavigation of the globe. With black and white frontispiece and 2 further plates. The title page states that it was written 'by an Officer on Board the said Ship' This was originally thought to have been Byron himself, but it is more recently being assigned to Charles Clerke, who was a Mid-Shipman on the voyage - and later sailed with James Cook. Byron was asked to explore the S Atlantic, in the hope of finding a base for British interests, but this was kept secret to avoid conflict with Spanish authorities who controlled the S American mainland. He crossed the Atlantic in winter 1764. The account provoked considerable interest, particularly because of its desciption of a giant people in Patagonia. The book describes a meeting in which Commodore Byron wanted to hand out 'trinkets - 'The method he made use of to facilitate the distribution of them, was by making the Indians sit down on the ground, that he might put the strings of beads, &c. round their necks, and such was their extraordinary size, that in this situation they were almost as high as the Commodore when standing.' This copy is bound with the original marbled boards and a new spine with gilt-lined raised bands and title label. There is scuffing and wear to the boards but the binding is clean and sound. Internally the original endpapers are present with repair. Contents: frontispiece (repaired with some loss); title page with ink signature to top (some browning and loss to side edge); preface 2pp (similar browning and side edge loss); text pp 1-181 with decorative headpiece and initial capital and 2 plates; Appendix with errata pp 181-186; Finis; advertisement 2pp (damage to bottom corner. Overall the contents are in very good clean condition, with light toning to paper and the occasional mark.