7 vol., xii, 398; [1 blank], 368; [1 blank], 372; viii, 304; vii, [1 blank], 472; xii, 503, [1 blank]; xi, [1 blank], 462pp., frontispiece portrait, 24 aquatint plates, large folding map, 2 folding tables, half titles in all but vols 3 and 5 (conforming to Forbes 522), occasional foxing and offsetting, contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt with ship motifs, 8vo (218 x 135mm), London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821.
A handsome set of the official accounts of Cook’s three voyages. In 1768, when Cook set out on the first of these voyages, his official purpose was to observe the transit of Venus. However, he carried with him secret orders from the British Admiralty to seek ‘a continent or land of great extent’ and claim it for the King and country. On this first voyage he set up an observatory on Tahiti, circumnavigated and chartered New Zealand for the first time, and charted Australia’s eastern coastline. On the second voyage Cook made the first crossing of the Antarctic Circle, determining the southern landmass was not as large as previously thought. The final voyage was an attempt to find the elusive North West Passage, culminating in Cook’s death in Hawaii.
Abbey Travel 5; Beddie 94; Forbes 522.
