Vancouver, George

FIRST EDITION, 4 volumes (3 volumes text and atlas), 4to (300 x 225mm.) and folio (550 x 420mm.), (vol.1) [viii], xxx, [viii], 432pp.; (vol.2) [x], 504pp.; (vol.3) [x], 508pp., 1 map and 17 plates; (atlas vol.) 10 folding maps, 6 coastal views, together a total of 34 engraved maps and plates, text in contemporary polished half calf, spines decorated in gilt and blind, marbled boards, endpapers and edges, the atlas in contemporary red straight-grained half morocco, marbled boards matching the text volumes, some spotting to plates and offsetting

[Lord] Clonbrock, armorial bookplate

Bagnall 5702; Ferguson 281; Forbes 298; Hill (2004) 1753; Howes V23; Lada-Mocarski, 55; Sabin 98443; Staton & Tremaine 688

AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE COPY. ''Vancouver, who had served on Captain Cook's second and third voyages, was made commander of a grand-scale expedition to reclaim Britain's rights, resulting from the Nootka Convention, at Nootka Sound, to examine thoroughly the coast south of 60° in order to find a possible passage to the Atlantic, and to learn what establishments had been founded by other powers. This voyage became one of the most important ever made in the interests of geographical knowledge. Vancouver sailed by way of the Cape of Good Hope to Australia, where he discovered King George's sound and Cape Hood, then to New Zealand, Hawaii, and the northwest coast of America. In three seasons' work Vancouver surveyed the coast of California, visited San Francisco and San Diego and other Spanish settlements in Alta California... investigated the Strait of Juan de Fuca, discovered the Strait of Georgia, circumnavigated Vancouver Island, and disproved the existence of any passage between the Pacific and Hudson Bay'' (Hill).

See also illustration on page [6].