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THE FIRST PUBLISHED ILLUSTRATIONS OF AUSTRALIAN PLANTS, FISHES AND BIRDS DAMPIER, WILLIAM
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Description
A VOYAGE TO NEW HOLLAND... IN THE YEAR 1699. London, James Knapton, 1703.
Octavo, 5 maps (1 folding), 10 plates; full contemporary speckled calf, red morocco title piece, bookplate of Godfrey Bosville. A fine copy.
FIRST EDITION. 'Dampier's first book was so well received that the British Admiralty gave him a commission as captain in the Royal Navy and command of the Roebuck to conduct surveys of New Holland' (Hill, p. 76). Dampier's voyage in the Roebuck in 1699 led to the second landing of the English in Australia; and to descriptions and the first published illustrations of Australian plants, fishes, and birds. For a 17th-century buccaneer who circled the world three times in rough company, William Dampier demonstrated a remarkable interest in and sensitivity to the natural world. The depth of his interest is evident in his description of the Bridled Tern which he caught at Shark Bay on 28 August 1699: 'I saw also some Boobies, and Noddy-birds; and in the night caught one of these last. It was another shape and colour than I had seen before. It had a long small bill, as all of them have, flat feet like ducks' feet; its tail forked like a Swallow, but longer and broader, and the fork deeper than that of the Swallow, with very long wings; the top or crown of the head of this Noddy was coal-black, having also small black streaks round about and close to the eyes; and round these streaks on each side, a pretty broad white circle. The breast, belly, and under-part of the wings of this Noddy were white; and the back and upper-part of its wings of a faint black or smoak colour. See a picture of this and of the common one.'
Octavo, 5 maps (1 folding), 10 plates; full contemporary speckled calf, red morocco title piece, bookplate of Godfrey Bosville. A fine copy.
FIRST EDITION. 'Dampier's first book was so well received that the British Admiralty gave him a commission as captain in the Royal Navy and command of the Roebuck to conduct surveys of New Holland' (Hill, p. 76). Dampier's voyage in the Roebuck in 1699 led to the second landing of the English in Australia; and to descriptions and the first published illustrations of Australian plants, fishes, and birds. For a 17th-century buccaneer who circled the world three times in rough company, William Dampier demonstrated a remarkable interest in and sensitivity to the natural world. The depth of his interest is evident in his description of the Bridled Tern which he caught at Shark Bay on 28 August 1699: 'I saw also some Boobies, and Noddy-birds; and in the night caught one of these last. It was another shape and colour than I had seen before. It had a long small bill, as all of them have, flat feet like ducks' feet; its tail forked like a Swallow, but longer and broader, and the fork deeper than that of the Swallow, with very long wings; the top or crown of the head of this Noddy was coal-black, having also small black streaks round about and close to the eyes; and round these streaks on each side, a pretty broad white circle. The breast, belly, and under-part of the wings of this Noddy were white; and the back and upper-part of its wings of a faint black or smoak colour. See a picture of this and of the common one.'