PBA Galleries

2 volumes. [6], lvi, 539; viii, 531, [16] pp. Atlas volume not present. Portrait frontispiece in Volume 1. (4to) 29x22.5 cm. (11½x8¾") period full calf, spine gilt. Early Edition.

First translated into English the prior year. Sailing from France in 1785, La Pérouse was to examine such parts of the Pacific as had not yet been explored by James Cook; to seek for an interoceanic passage; to make scientific observations on the various countries, peoples, and products; to obtain reliable information about the fur trade and the extent of Spanish settlement in California (with the possibility of seizing some parts north of the Spanish), and to promote in general the inducements for French enterprise in that quarter. He reached the northwest coast and Alaska in June, 1786, was in Monterey, California on September 14, sailed westward, charted around Japan and the Pacific Islands, etc., and finally anchored in Botany Bay, Australia in January 1788. He left Australia in mid-February, but would perish at sea. The remains of his vessel were found on a island to the north of the New Hebrides in 1826. Fortunately, from the dispatches sent from Australia and, prior to that, from Kamchatka, the account of his Voyages was constructed. Hill asserts that "Lapérouse made a valuable contribution to the history of geographical discovery, particularly with regard to the American coast and the natives of America..." Howes is of the opinion that "of all modern exploring voyages to the Pacific those of Cook, La Perouse and Vancouver were the most important."