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: Portlock, Nathaniel Place: London Publisher: John Stockdale Date: 1789 Description: xii, 384, xl pp. Illus. with 19 (of 20) plates including portrait frontispiece, 5 (of 6) folding copper-engraved charts, and 13 copper-engraved plates. (4to) 11x9, later half morocco and mottled boards. First Edition. 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, noted by Hill as "the most important result of the voyage... Portlock was a veteran of Captain Cook's third voyage to the Pacific. His vivid descriptions of encounters with the American Indians and the Russians serve to broaden the perspective provided by William Beresford's and Dixon's narrative...." Lada-Mocarski calls the work "an early and important original source material, with many illustrations which enhance its value." Hill, Pacific Voyages, p.239; Howes P497; Lada-Mocarski 42; Sabin 64389. Lot Amendments Condition: Front board detached, extremities worn; lacking the General Chart; some foxing and offsetting; else very good. Item number: 188272