A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World; In which the coast of North-West America has been carefully Examined and accurately Surveyed. Undertaken By His Majesty's Command, Principally with a view to Ascertain the Existence.

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4to. A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World; In which the coast of North-West America has been carefully Examined and accurately Surveyed. Undertaken By His Majesty's Command, Principally with a view to Ascertain the Existence of any Navigable Communication between the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans; and performed in the years 1790. [-] 1795, in the Discovery sloop of war, and the armed tender Chatham. First edition. Three volumes. Lacking atlas volume, else apparently complete. Full speckled calf. Gilt lettering and decoration, gilt panels to boards. Extra-illustrated with unrelated period map at end of vol. III of Central Asia (from Forster, Journey from Bengal to England, London, 1798). [18] engraved plates total. Volume I: [10], xxix, [2 pp. ad], 432 pp. [7 plates]. Pencil correction to List of Plates (l. A3r). Damp staining to head at gutter. Volume II: [6], 504 pp. [5 plates]. Small perforation to p. 201, text not affected. Large tear p. 323, discreetly repaired with tape [no loss of text]. Volume III: [6], 505 pp., [3 pp. errata, 1 fold-out map]. [6 plates]. Set has been professionally rebacked. Original boards, new spine labels and gilt tooled nautical decoration to compartments, new endpapers. All volumes have wear to calf, bumping to corners, and a few small stains to edges of text blocks. Watermarks to paper with date of 1794. Offsetting from plates. Occasional staining, commensurate with age, but overall in VG condition. Ex libris stamp of Conselheiro Menonca Cortez to half-title of all volumes. This voyage became one of the most important ever made in the interest of geographical knowledge. Vancouver sailed by way of the 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. In three seasons' work, he surveyed the coast of California; visited San Francisco and San Diego, and other Spanish settlements in California; investigated the Strait of Juan de Fuca; discovered the Strait of Georgia; circumnavigated Vancouver Island; and disproved the existence of any passage between the Pacific and Hudson's Bay. (Hill, Pacific Voyages [2004] p. 623). Seller Inventory # 004466

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