Voyage Round the World.
Item #62506
BOUGAINVILLE, Lewis de. Voyage Round the World. Performed by Order of His Most Christian Majesty, in the Years 1766, 1767, 1768, and 1769. London; Printed for J. Nourse ... and T. Davies, 1772. 1st English ed. 4to. xxviii,476pp. Copper-engraved folding plate, 12 charts on five copper-engraved folding plates. Orig. marbled boards, rebacked in period-style gilt-decorated calf, raised spine bands, red morocco spine label. Boards rubbed, edgewear, some faint scattered foxing, else very good or better. Cox I,,55. Hill 165. Sabin 6869. Account of the first official French circumnavigation. Louis de Bougainville had been aide-de-camp to Montcalm in Canada and acted for the French at their surrender at Montreal in 1760. A chapter of this work is devoted to the natural history of the Falkland Islands. "During this voyage, Bougainville visited Rio de Janeiro, Notevideo, and Patagonia in South America; he was also in Buenos Aires when the order for the expulsion of the Jesuits of Paraguay arrived, which he describes in detail. He then proceeded through the Strait of Magellan and across the Pacific, visiting the Tuamotu Archipelago, Tahiti, the Samoa Islands, the New Hebrides, and the Salomon, Louisiade, and New Britain archipelagos... There is a long description of Tahiti, containing observations on the natives as wel as a vocabulary of 300 words used on the island"--Hill. Bougainville's voyage created a great deal of interest among the French in the Pacific, which resulted in the voyages of du Fresne and de La Perouse. The flowering vine is named for him as well as the largest island in the Solomons. He later took part in the American Revolution, survived the French revolution, and was made a senator and count by Napoleon.
Price: $4,000.00