BOUGAINVILLE, Louis-Antoine, Comte de (1729-1811). A Voyage Round the World, London, 1772, folding engraved plate and maps, contemporary calf. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH.

BOUGAINVILLE, Louis-Antoine, Comte de (1729-1811). A Voyage Round the World. Performed by Order of His Most Christian Majesty, in the Years 1766, 1767, 1768, and 1769 ... Translated from the French by John Reinhold Forster. London: "Printed for J. Nourse ... and T. Davies", 1772. 4to (268 x 215mm). Folding engraved plate, 5 large folding engraved charts (variable spotting and staining throughout, with a few leaves heavily spotted, but the plate and charts generally clean). Contemporary calf, spine gilt with red morocco lettering-piece, marbled endpapers (some flaking and rubbing, rebacked preserving old spine). Provenance: Sir Henry Mainwaring Bart. (armorial bookplate). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of an account of the earliest French circumnavigation of the globe. The work is important for its descriptions of the Falkland Islands, the straits of Magellan, the South Seas and the East Indies. It also provides an early account of Tahiti and includes a glossary of the Tahitian language in the Appendix. cf. Brunet I, 434 (citing the first French edition, also of 1772); Cox I, p.55; Hill 165; Howgego Encyclopedia of Exploration B142; Sabin 6869; Spence 158.