Beschreibung:

Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808) An Historical Collection of the several voyages and discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean. London: printed for the author, sold by J.Nourse, T.Payne and P.Elmsley, 1770-1771. 2 volumes in one, 4° (261 x 212mm). Letterpress including half-titles, 1p 'Contents.. Directions for placing the Plates' and 3pp. of errata at the end of vol.I. 4 folding engraved maps, 12 plates, 7 folding. (Small tear at fold of one map, small paper-fault hole to blank margin of one plate, occasional light browning to text.) Expertly bound to style in 20th-century speckled calf, spine gilt with red and yellow morocco lettering-pieces (spine somewhat faded). Provenance : Sale Bonhams, June 24, 1997, lot 180. A fine copy, including both half-titles and the very rare 'Contents/Directions for placing the Plates' leaf. As Dalrymple remarks in the preface to vol.I, the collection 'is almost entirely a literal 0ranslation'(p.x) of Spanish and Dutch accounts of voyages in the South Pacific with particular reference to the existence of a Southern Continent. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros' account of the discovery of 'Australia del Espiritu Santo' in 1605-6, figures prominently. Dalrymple, the Hydrographer to the East India Company, was a rival to Captain James Cook for the position of leader of the expedition aboard the Endeavour to find Terra Australis . The present work was published whilst Cook was away and led to Dalrymple's election to the Royal Society. The work is a valuable summation of all the published information then available about the southern Pacific: its usefulness can be gauged by the fact that it was one of a select number of works that Cook chose to take with him on his second expedition. Hill pp.389-390; Kropelien 245; Sabin 18338.