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[8], 272 pp. Copper-engraved frontispiece portrait; engraved title-page. (8vo) 8½x5, later half speckledcalf & marbled boards, rebacked with original gilt-tooled spine strip laid on, morocco label, raised bands, marbled endpapers. First Edition thus.

Following reports of the lucrative fur trade on the northwest coast of America, the King George's Sound Company was formed in London in May, 1785, purchasing two ships, renamed the King George and Queen Charlotte. Portlock commanded the former and was in overall command of the expedition, and George Dixon commanded the latter. After visiting the Falkland Islands and making a long stay at Hawaii, the ships proceeded to America and surveyed the coast. This abridgement appears to have been taken largely from the work of Captain Portlock, also published in 1789. Hill says that the present edition "is very uncommon and much scarcer than the original quarto edition." This copy without the world chart, which Hill notes as not being issued with all copies, and Forbes affirms. Forbes 178; Hill 1378; Howes P494