[Rarebooks] fa: VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD and TO THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA - Capt. George Dixon - 1789

[ArCh]

Listed now, auctions ending MONDAY, April 22. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y3tbxvzl

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Captain George Dixon [ed.]: 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, Captains Portlock and Dixon. Dedicated, by permission, to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. London: Geo. Goulding, Haydn's Head, No. 6, James Street, Covent Garden, 1789. FIRST EDITION. Quarto (30 cm/12 in.) , untrimmed in original publisher's boards, rebacked; xxix, [1], 360, 47, [1] pp.; with the half-tile page and 17 (of 22) engraved maps, charts, plates and views, 8 of which are folding, including the large (92 x 64 cm./36 x 25 1/2 in.) frontispiece map. ESTC T71860; Howes D365; Lada-Mocarski 43; Sabin 30264; Streeter VI 3484.

Boards stained and somewhat edge-worn, front board slightly bowed; various degrees of damp-stain and cockling to the upper portion of the contents, mostly light, occasionally more pronounced and descending further down the fore-edge margins; intermittent toning to the leaves with occasional browning, spots and touches of soiling, large folding map with a short tear along the right vertical fold. Lacking the errata leaf and five of the plates, else complete and sound, firmly bound.

Account of the voyage undertaken by Captains Portlock and Dixon to the northwest coast of North America to collect furs, which were then transported to China. During the four-year expedition, Dixon explored the coast as far south as King George's Sound, visiting Nootka, and discovering Queen Charlotte Island and Queen Charlotte's Sound, Dixon's Entrance, Norfolk Bay, etc., before wintering in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). The main body of the text consists of a series of letters by William Beresford, supercargo aboard Dixon's ship the Queen Charlotte. Dixon edited the letters and supplied the introduction, the maps, and two appendices on navigational details and the natural history of the region. "Good reading and...an excellent authority for the early days of fur trading on the northwest coast" (Streeter).