Lot 899
  • 899

Mortimer, George

Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 GBP
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Description

  • Observations and Remarks made during a Voyage to the Islands of Teneriffe, Amsterdam, Maria's Islands near Van Dieman's Land; Otaheite, Sandwich Islands; Owhyhee, the Fox Islands on the North West Coast of America, Tinian, and from thence to Canton, in the Brig Mercury. London: for the Author, 1791
  • Paper
FIRST EDITION, 4to (303 x 231mm.), viii pp., [viii pp. list of subscribers], 72pp., 2 folding engraved maps, one plate, contemporary tree calf, red label, marbled endpapers, occasional spotting and offsetting

Provenance

Francis Ferrand Foljambe, 1749-1815, cypher on the spine

Literature

Ferguson 110; Hill (2004) 1192; Howes M845; Kroepelien 872; Lada-Mocarski 48; Sabin 50985

Catalogue Note

"The introduction to this volume states innocently that this voyage, commanded by Captain Cox, was undertaken 'from motives of curiosity', and that the North American fur trade was its 'ultimate object'. It is now known that the Mercury was transformed into the Gustav III once at sea... under orders from Sweden to attack Russian settlements on the Northwest Coast of America as part of the war between Sweden and Russia in 1788-1790... In spite of his assignment, however, when Cox came upon the few starving Russians he found in the region, he provided them with supplies rather than attacking them, and then left for Canton" (Hill).