VANCOUVER, GEORGE | A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World; in which the coast of North-West America has been carefully examined and accurately surveyed... [Edited by John Vancouver]. London: printed for G.G. & J. Robinson and J. Edwards, 1798

VANCOUVER, GEORGE

A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World; in which the coast of North-West America has been carefully examined and accurately surveyed... [Edited by John Vancouver]. London: printed for G.G. & J. Robinson and J. Edwards, 1798

3 volumes (without the folio atlas), 4to (11 3/8 x 9 1/4 in.). Half-titles, 3pp. errata at end of Vol. III, 1 engraved chart, 17 engraved plates. Later half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines with raised bands in six compartments, second and third gilt-lettered.

First edition of the text volumes of "One of the most important [voyages] ever made in the interests of geographical knowledge" (Hill).

Vancouver was put in command of the expedition on the recommendation of his old commanding officer Alan Gardner. He had served earlier with both Admiral Rodney and on James Cook's second and third voyages, so was well equipped in terms of experience, in addition he was a first-class navigator. The voyage was mounted as a "grand-scale expedition to reclaim Britain's rights, resulting from the Nootka Convention, at Nootka Sound, to thoroughly examine the coast south of 60º in order to find a possible passage to the Atlantic, and to learn what establishments had been founded by other powers. This voyage became one of the most important ever made in the interests of geographical knowledge. Vancouver sailed by way of the Cape of Good Hope to Australia, where he discovered King George's Sound and Cape Hood, then to New Zealand, Hawaii, and the northwest coast of America. In three seasons' work Vancouver surveyed the coast of California; visited San Francisco and San Diego ... and other Spanish settlements in Alta California; settled the necessary formalities with the Spanish at Nootka; investigated the Strait of Juan de Fuca; discovered the Strait of Georgia; circumnavigated Vancouver Island; and disproved the existence of any passage between the Pacific and Hudson Bay" (Hill, Pacific Voyages [2004] p. 623).

REFERENCE:

Cowan (1914) 236; Cowan (1933) 654-655; Cox II:30; Ferguson I:281; Fitzpatrick, Early Mapping of Hawai'i 39-43; Forbes I:298; Graff, Western Americana 4456; Hill (2004) 1753; Howes V-23; JCB 2009; Jones, Americana 667; Judd 178; Lada-Mocarski 55; Lande 1495; National Maritime Museum 142; O'Reilly-Reitman 635; Sabin 98443; Smith, Pacific Northwest Americana 10469. Staton & Tremaine 688; Strathern 582; Streeter 3497; Tweney 78; Wagner, Cartography of the Northwest Coast 853-860; Wantrup 63a; Wickersham 6601; Zamorano Eighty 77