Kotzebue, Otto von | With plates of California and the Sandwich Islands

Kotzebue, Otto von

Voyage of Discovery in the South Sea, and to Behring's Straits, in Search of a North-East Passage; Undertaken in the Years 1815, 16, 17, and 18, in the Ship Rurick. London: for Sir Richard Phillips, 1821

2 parts in 2 volumes. 8vo (uncut). The preferred issue with 19 plates and maps (including 4 portraits of natives colored by hand and 4 folding plates including The Dance of the Californians and The Dance of the Women of the Sandwich Islands and 4 folding maps); with a trace of spotting only to some of the deckle edges. Original printed wrappers; the second volumes lower wrapper creased. Folding box.

Entirely original and with lovely plates of California and the Sandwich Islands, after the drawings of Louis Choris.

Published as the sixth volume of Phillips New Voyages and Travels. This was the second Russian expedition into the Pacific for scientific exploration, sponsored by Count Romanzof, commanded by Kotzebue and included the artist Ludwig Choris.

First visiting Chile, Easter Island and the Marshall Islands, Kotzebue sailed the North American West Coast and Hawaii, stopping in California while searching for the Northwest Passage.

"Kotzebue was in San Francisco about the month of October, 1816. He, like La Perouse, was critical of the condition of the Mission Indian. He mentioned the Russian sailors who were taken prisoners for landing on the coast without permission" (Zamarano 80).

"The second state or issue has an increased number of plates..., and those relating to Hawaii are six in number. This later issue is preferable as it contains plates adapted from those in Choris, Voyage Pittoresque (Paris, 1822), then in the process of publication, that do not appear in any other edition of the Kotzebue narrative. ..."

REFERENCES:

Cowan (1933), 335; Forbes 529; Howes K-258; Sabin 38292