LA PÉROUSE, Jean François de Galaup, Comte de (1741-[?]1788). A Voyage Round the World, in the Years
1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788 … Translated from the French … Second Edition.
London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1799. 3 volumes, 8vo (213 x 130mm). Engraved
portrait frontispiece, 44 engraved plates and maps, most folding, tables (one
plate repaired and soiled at outer edge, variable spotting, staining and
browning). Contemporary half calf and marbled boards (some old repairs to heads
of spines, joints splitting, corners bumped). Provenance: Thomas Hough
(old signatures on front free endpapers and titles). Second English edition of
the account of this ill-fated voyage. The fate of the expedition has been a
mystery since the frigates ‘L’Astrolabe’ and ‘La Boussole’ sailed out of Botany
Bay in March 1788 and vanished without a trace. As the ‘Advertisement’ to the
present edition has it, “The total loss of the frigates … together with their
able commander La Perouse, and the rest of the officers and men of science that
were associated with him in the hazardous office of exploring unknown coasts,
necessarily renders this work less perfect than it otherwise would have been …”
Brunet III, 44; Ferguson 288; Forbes
311; Hill p. 974; Howes L-93; Sabin 38963; Wickersham 6612. With 2 other
related books, namely George Anson’s A Voyage Round the World … The Ninth
Edition (London, 1761, folding engraved maps, contemporary calf, rebacked)
and Lewis de Bougainville’s A Voyage Round the World … Translated from the
French by John Reinhold Forster (Dublin, 1772, one folding plate, lacking
map, contemporary calf, rebacked). Provenance: from the Collection of
Lt. Cdr. Andrew David (bookplate). (5)
