Beschreibung:

A Voyage to the South Sea, Undertaken by the Command of His Majesty, For the Purpose of Conveying the Bread-Fruit Tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty's Ship The Bounty, Commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh. Including an Account of the Mutiny on Board the Said Ship, and the Subsequent Voyage of Part of the Crew, in the Ship's Boat, From Tofoa, of the Friendly Islands, To Timor, a Dutch Settlement in the East Indies... London, George Nicol, 1792. [x] + 264 pp. Stipple-engraved oval portrait frontispiece of Bligh by Conde after Russell, folding plan of the Bounty, folding plan of the Bounty's launch, plate of a bread-fruit, and 4 plans and charts (3 folding). 4to. Modern period style brown calf calf gilt extra. Fine. First Edition of Bligh's famous voyage. His account of the mutiny had been published in 1790 but, as the publisher explains in his Advertisement, "the reason of the Narrative appearing first, was for the purpose of communicating early information concerning an event which attracted the public notice: and being drawn up in a hasty manner, it required many corrections." This is the first appearance of the story of the entire expedition. "Having acquired a high reputation as a skilful navigator, [Bligh] was appointed to the Bounty, of 250 tons, in December 1787, arriving at his destination, Otaheite, ten months afterwards. Here he remained for five or six months, during which period his crew became demoralized by the luxurious climate and their apparently unrestricted intercourse with the natives. The object of the voyage, namely to obtain plants of the bread-fruit, with a view to its acclimatisation in the British West India islands, having been accomplished, Bligh set out on his voyage thither. But his irascible temper and overbearing conduct excited (under the leadership of Fletcher Christian) a mutiny on board the ship; and on 28 April 1789 he, with eighteen of his crew, were overmastered and cast adrift in an open boat, only twenty-three feet long, and deeply laden; they had a small amount of provisions allotted to them, but no chart. In this frail craft they sailed, for nearly three months, a distance of 3,618 miles, touching at some small islands, where they got only a few shellfish and some fruit; but at length, thanks to Bligh's skill, resource, and courage, they reached Timor" (DNB). "An extremely important book The account was based upon Bligh's journal but was written, edited and seen through the press by James Burney under the supervision of Sir Joseph Banks, during Bligh's absence from London while on his second breadfruit voyage" (Hill, 27). The mutiny on the Bounty was "one of the most remarkable incidents in the whole of maritime historyAfter visiting Tahiti and the Tonga Islands, the crew mutinied under Fletcher Christian, the master's mate. The mutiny was largely due to Bligh's harshness to his crew; also partly to attachments that had sprung up between the crew and certain of the women of Tahiti, where the Bounty afterwards returned, before sailing to Pitcairn Island.. After the mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Bligh with eighteen others was set adrift in the ship's launch. After a very remarkable voyage of 4,000 miles, in an open boat across the South Pacific, they managed to reach Timor.. one of the most heroic sea voyages ever made" (Hill, 26-8). National Maritime Museum Catalogue, Voyages & Travel, 624; Sabin 5910.