Author

PORTLOCK, Nathaniel.

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, by Captains Portlock and Dixon.

Published, Date

John Stockdale, London,1789.

Description

First edition. 4to (32 x 24.7cm.), engraved portrait frontispiece, 6 folding maps and charts, 13 plates. Original paper-backed boards, edges uncut, titled in ink on spine, preserved within red morocco-backed cloth folding case, light offsetting, upper joint weak. Provenance: Hector Macdonald Buchanan of Ross Priory, Scotland, manuscript ex libris, signed and dated 1817 on preliminary blank. Sir Walter Scott was a close friend of Buchanan and a frequent visitor to Ross Priory.

Note

Beautiful copy, uncut in the original boards. The principle account of the first commercial voyage to the Northwest Coast and the first English voyage to visit Hawaii after that of Captain Cook. Captain Portlock was a veteran of Cook's third voyage and was sent with Dixon to the Northwest Coast to investigate reports of the lucrative fur trade there. This volume contains a general map of the Northwest Coast and five maps of particular harbours along the coast. This survey was the most important result of the voyage. The book includes vivid descriptions of encounters with American Indians and several Indian vocabularies are given.

References

Forbes, 177; Hill, 239; Howes P497; Lada-Mocarski, 42; Sabin 64389; Zimmer 495.

Stock Number

80595