Beschreibung:

COOK, Captain James (1728-1779) – [SECOND VOYAGE]. A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World, performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775 . London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1777. First edition of Cook’s second voyage. After the success of his first voyage, the Admiralty sent Cook on a second expedition to investigate the globe as far south as possible. He made the first crossing of the Antarctic Circle, dispelled the myth of Terra Australis and surveyed his new discoveries: Palmerston Island, Niue, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. ‘This voyage produced a vast amount of information concerning the Pacific peoples and islands, proved the value of the chronometer as an aid to finding longitude, and improved techniques for preventing scurvy’ (Hill). Beddie 1216; Hill 358; Holmes 24; PMM 223; Sabin 16245. 2 volumes, quarto (290 x 230mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait, 63 engraved plates and charts, of which 31 double-page and 13 folding, folding letterpress table of vocabulary at end ('Chart of the Southern Hemisphere' with browning along creasefolds and spotting and with short tear along creasefold and associated old paper repair, a few plates cropped close, sometimes with loss of imprints, occasional minor scattered spotting and variable light browning). Contemporary tree calf (rebacked, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance : John Foster (armorial bookplates).