VANCOUVER, George, Capt. (1757–1798). A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World. London: for G.G. and J. Robinson; and J. Edwards, 1798.
3 volumes, 4to (298 x 235 mm). Does not include atlas volume. (Occasional light spotting near margins and title–pages). Half–titles in Vols. I and III, 18 engraved plates and maps, errata at end of Vol. III (browning or spotting to plates, offsetting from plates to text). Modern half calf, contemporary marbled sides retained, renewed endpapers). Provenance: Chicago Historical Society (rubberstamps on title–pages); Lenox Library New York (rubberstamps on title–page verso).
FIRST EDITION of one of the most significant accounts of Pacific exploration of the eighteenth century. “Vancouver, who served on Captain Cook’s second and third voyages was made commander of a grand–scale expedition to reclaim Britain’s rights…Vancouver sailed by way of 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… [He] surveyed the coast of California; visited San Francisco, San Diego and other Spanish settlements in Alta California; settled the Strait of Georgie; circumnavigated the Vancouver Island; and disproved the existence of any passage between the Pacific and Hudson Bay” (Hill). Howes describes the three-year voyage as one of the most important modern exploring voyages to the Pacific next to Cook’s and Le Perouse’s. Streeter details that “this narrative is one of the most important accounts of the exploration of the Pacific Northwest and New Zealand, and valuable source information about Tahiti and the Hawaiian Island in the last decade of the eighteenth century” and Lada–Mocarski states that “this is one of the most important voyages for the history and the cartography of the northwest coast in general and of Alaska in particular”. Forbes 298; Graff 4456; Hill 1753; Howes V–23 (“c”); Lada–Mocarski 55; Sabin 98441; Streeter Sale 3497; Zamorano Eighty 77.