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Three volumes, with the plates normally in the atlas volume bound in, as issued. [8], xcvi, 421, [3 blank]; [12], 549; [12], 558, + [1] ad pp. Illustrated with 24 copper-engraved maps, charts and profile views (13 folding); and, normally found in the atlas: two folding charts (of the world and of the coasts of Northwestern America and Northeastern Asia) and 61 copper-engraved plates, mostly after J. Webber, most folding. 12¼x9½, original blue boards, rebacked with modern cloth, old leather spine labels, new endpapers. First Edition, "Medallion" issue B.

First edition of Cook's third voyage, in which the Sandwich Islands [now Hawaiian Islands] are discovered. Cook would be killed by the initially friendly natives of Hawaii. Also, in Cook's search for the Northwest Passage, he surveyed the straits between Asia and America and ascertained the proximity between them. The first two volumes were the work of Cook himself, the third was completed by Captain James King. The publication of this official account was much delayed, and, according to Holmes, "it was so eagerly awaited by the public that it was sold out on the third day after publication". Forbes declares the work to be "arguably the single most important book on the Hawaiian Islands" which "documents all aspects of Hawaiian culture at the point of discovery by Europeans. It is a magnificent summation of all the public and private journals, logs, drawings, and other observations made during the course of the voyage and is as important a record of the exploration of the North Pacific as Cook's first two voyages had been for the South Pacific." He further notes that twelve of the plates in the atlas (in this copy bound into the text volumes) relate to Hawaii, as do two of the charts. The present copy, in the original boards with page edges untrimmed, is in the uncommon (and convenient) state of having the plates bound in where they are referred to in the text (in most cases, a few are out of order). This is the "Quarto Edition, `Medallion' Issue B" as described by David Forbes in his Hawaiian National Bibliography: "This issue of the first edition has altered titles to all volumes: engraved medallions are added and the text has been modified, but the date remains as 1784... A one-line erratum found at the end of the `contents, in the first quarto and first `medallion' variant issue does not appear in this, and the text has been corrected..." Some scholars, however, feel this issue is more accurately described as a printing of the second edition, for while the publisher remained the same as for the first edition, the task of printing apparently had been transferred to H. Hughs, who produced the 1785 printing with "Second Edition" printed on the title-page. Forbes 64; Holmes 47; Howes C729a; Lada-Mocarski 37; Sabin 16250.