Beschreibung:

BOUGAINVILLE, Louis Antoine, Comte de (1729-1811). Voyage autour du monde, par la frigate du roi La Boudeuse, et la flute l'Itoile; en 1766, 1767, 1768 & 1769 . Paris: Le Breton for Saillant & Nyon, 1771. 4° (256 x 187mm). 20 engraved folding maps and charts, 3 engraved plates, half title and errata leaves, woodcut arms to title, dedication with woodcut vignette, head- and tail-pieces (one map slightly offset, one with short tear at fold). Contemporary French stained mottled calf gilt, boards with borders of triple gilt rules, spines gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others decorated with fleurons, marbled edges (a little rubbed and chipped, a few worm-holes on spine, colour causing superficial flaking). Provenance : M. Rey, Lieutenant Giniral de Police (engraved armorial bookplate). FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF FRANCE'S FIRST OFFICIAL AND MOST IMPORTANT CIRCUMNAVIGATION for its discoveries in the Pacific, with its commander's name appearing repeatedly on modern charts of the Western Pacific as an island, strait, cape or reef. Bougainville was given the task of formally returning the Iles Malouines (Falkland Islands) to Spain which he had casually colonized for France on his earlier voyage, 1763-76. Spain claimed they were within continental South America and so Port Louis became Puerto de la Soledad, Islas Malvinas. Included is a chapter on their discovery and French occupation. Bougainville's passage through the Straits of Magellan is especially detailed with new charts, and once into the Pacific he began his explorations, continuing Roggeveen's search for 'Davis Land' and making many important discoveries. These were in the Tuamotus, Tahiti (which he annexed for France), the Navigator Islands of Samoa, the New Hebrides, New Britain and the previously unknown Louisiades Group. He sighted the Great Barrier Reef and may have seen the coast of Queensland three years before Cook. His excellent description of Tahiti is appended with a Tahitian vocabulary which is the first European printing of a Polynesian language. His voyage sparked great interest in France, resulting in the voyages of Marion de Fresne and La Pirouse, and it was through Bougainville's account of the South Pacific that Rousseau and his counterparts were to confirm their notion of the 'noble savage'. Hill 163; Brunet I, 1167; Sabin 6864; Headland 127.