Beschreibung:

Title: A Voyage Round the World; But More Particularly to the North-West Coast of America performed in 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788 in The King George and Queen Charlotte, Captains Portlock and Dixon Author: Dixon, George Place London Publisher: Published by Geo. Goulding Date: 1789 Description: xxix, [3], 360, 47,[ 1] pp., half-title, large folding engraved map, 6 folding charts and 15 plates (one folding), including views, natural history subjects and music, errata and directions to the binder leaf.(4to) 30x22.8 cm (11¾x9"), original paper-backed boards, uncut, titled in ink on spine, preserved in a folding cloth case within a blue morocco-backed cloth slipcase. First Edition. An exceptional copy of the first edition in the original unrestored boards of "this excellent authority for the early days of fur trading on the northwest coast" (Streeter). Captains Portlock and Dixon was well prepared for this voyage; They were with Captain Cook on his third voyage and had seen the "inexhaustible mine of wealth" in fur trading on the northwest coast. Dixon made important maps of the coast and many significant discoveries including Queen Charlotte Island, Port Mulgrave, Norfolk Bay, and Dixon Entrance and Archipelago. The work is primarily an epistolary narrative, being a series of forty-nine letters signed "W.B.", or, William Beresford, super-cargo aboard the Queen Charlotte, but edited by Dixon who added the introduction, the appendix, and the maps. In addition to the letters there are important appendices relating to aspects of natural history and ship's logs. Forbes 162; Hill Pacific Voyages, p.23; Howes D365; Lada Mocarski 43; Sabin 64390; Streeter Sale 3484. Lot Amendments Condition: Light wear to boards; short old repair to folding map; light offsetting from plates; some wear to slipcase; near fine. Item number: 240620