Kerguelen Tremarec, Yves-Joseph de | A suppressed account of the first French landing in Australia

Kerguelen Tremarec, Yves-Joseph de

Relation de deux voyages dans les mers Australes & des Indes. ... Paris: Knapen & fils, 1782

8vo (198 x 125 mm). Half-title present, folding map of Terres Australes; but for some light spotting to half-title and a trace to title, a lovely copy of a rare work. Nineteenth-century green calf and marbled boards, spine gilt, edges rubbed.

A suppressed account of the first French landing in Australia.

First edition, with most of this printing suppressed and destroyed by the French government, supposedly because of the dedication 'A la Patrie.'

Kerguelen's two voyages (1771-1774) were, unlike that of Marion de Fresne and Crozet, commissioned by the French government in the hope of discovering the southern continent of Gonneville, as the French answer to the discoveries of Cook. On the first, he discovered the islands that now bear his name, believing them to be part of the continent itself. His other ship, Gros Venture, commanded by St. Allourn, became separated from Kerguelen's vessel and made a relatively high southern track from the island to Shark Bay, Cape Leeuwin and Dirk Hartog Island (the first French landfalls on the Australian coast) before going on to Timor, thence to Mauritius.

The second expedition was at first intended to settle Gonneville land and was then modified to a circumnavigation at the highest possible southern latitude. In the event Kerguelen abandoned the expedition after having reached the islands for the second time. French disappointment expressed itself in court-martial and imprisonment. However, this cannot detract from Kerguelen's place in the early history of Antarctic exploration. In addition to the account, the work also includes chapters on the American War of Independence, the navy and scurvy.

REFERENCES:

du Rietz 641; Sabin 37218 (omitting the chart); Spence 650; not in Hill