[Rarebooks] fa: 1774 Gentleman's Magazine: BOSTON TEA PARTY + CAPTAIN COOK & NEW ZEALAND, &c.

[ArCh]

Auction ending Sunday, October 16. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/37k9kk5p

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Volume XLIV [44]. For the Year MDCCLXXIV [1774]. London: Printed at St. John's Gate, for D. Henry, [1774]. Twelve monthly issues (Jan.-Dec.), plus the supplement, volume title, indices and preface. Thick 8vo in early/period calf-backed marbled boards, gilt-lettered morocco spine label; [4] + 628 + [16] pp.; with charts and tables, in-text woodcut illustrations, plus 22 copper-engraved plates, five of which are folding (complete).

This volume's January issue contains one of the earliest printed accounts of the BOSTON TEA PARTY, which had occurred only the month before. The "Summary of Advices relative to the Tea Ships sent to America" consists of an almost day-by-day account of events in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, etc. leading up to the tea party, as well as a description of the rumpus itself: "—But behold what followed! a number of resolute men (dressed like Mohawks or Indians), determined to do all in their power to save their country from the ruin which their enemies had plotted, in less than four hours emptied every chest of tea on board the three ships…(etc.)" Additionally, the volume boasts numerous other articles on the growing revolutionary tumult in the colonies, including:
	- The Grievances of the Americans fairly represented. Includes the text of a long letter from "Raleigh" to the Earl of Dartmouth which concludes prophetically: "My Lord, an attempt to establish government in America by military force, must be ultimately fatal to this country. It will commence in folly and injustice—and it will end in distress and humiliation."
	- Proceedings of the American Colonies. A semi-monthly collection of letters, reports and dispatches from Philadelphia, Williamsburg, Annapolis, Charles-Town, South Carolina; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Boston and Salem, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island, etc., etc. ("This account will be continued while the affairs of America continue interesting.")
	- Letter to Lord North, in behalf of the Americans.
	- Lord Camden's Sentiments concerning the Right of taxing America.
	- Account of the Rise of the present Ill-humour in America.
	- Cause of the present Commotions in America.
	- Mr. [Edmund] Burke's celebrated Speech on the motion for repealing the act for imposing a duty upon tea in America.
	- Proceedings of the American Continental Congress.
	- Address of the Inhabitants of Quebec to Gov. Carleton.
	- Extensive coverage of the Proceedings in Parliament, including debates on the Coercive Acts (a.k.a. the Intolerable Acts), such as the Boston Port Bill, enacted in the wake of the tea party, etc.

This volume is also notable for containing important material on COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH PACIFIC, including an engraved plate of  "a new Zealand Chief curiously Tataowed [tattooed]." The multi-part "Epitome of the Voyage round the World by Lieutenant Cook, accompanied by Mr. [Joseph] Banks and Dr. [Daniel] Solander" (continued over three issues) describes Cook's exploration of the Society Islands; his search for "a southern continent" (during which a comet is sighted and "Tupia, on seeing it, cried out that the people of Bolabola would now kill the people of Ulierea…"); the discovery of  "Terra Australis incognita"; the circumnavigation of New Zealand; the "Originality of the Arts in that Country, which no other People had ever visited"; the "Voyage to New Holland, on the Coast of which they were cast upon a Rock; Their Deliverance"; etc. Elsewhere in the volume can be found a notice of the return to England (on July 14) of the Adventure, sister ship of Cook's Endeavor, as well as "An authentic account of the miserable fate of ten men belonging to the Adventure, lately returned from the South Seas [July, 1774], who were surprized by the Savages of New Zealand, put to death, and eaten. Extracted from the journal of one of the crew that was ordered to make search for the unhappy sufferers." Additionally, this volume contains a folding MAP of the coasts of Africa and Asia, the third and final part of a large folding "Chart of the Track of the Dolphin, Tamar, Swallow & Endeavour, through the South Seas, & of the Track of M. Bougainville round the World," the first two parts of which are to be found in our copy of the preceding year's volume (q.v.).

Other features of note include:
	- Additional PLATES: folding maps of English canals and proposed canals; portraits of Voltaire and Louis XV; several plates showing Curiosities of Herculaneum; three sorts of Plows; the Harlequin Duck; a remarkable Cannon at Dacca; views of St. Catherine's Chapel near Guildford, Bolton Castle, a folding Map of the Roads from London to Barnard Castle, Derby, etc.
	- An account of a Voyage towards the North Pole undertaken… in 1773, by Constantine John Phipps.
	- A lengthy, multi-part "Summary of the Arguments… lately heard before the House of Peers, for ascertaining the Right of Literary Property" as well as a letter regarding a "Mistake in Mrs. Macaulay's Modest Plea for Copy-right."
	- An Account of a Remarkable Apparition.
	- A Humorous Proposal for a flying Machine.
	- Plus monthly Prices of Stocks and Goods, theatre and book reviews, Bills of Mortality, Obituaries, listing of Bankrupts; newspaper extracts; and much more.

Binding with rubbing and wear, joints cracked with the front board loosening but secure; contents toned with intermittent browning and offsetting to the text leaves and some of the plates, occasionally quite pronounced, wear and short tears to the edge of one folding canal map where it protrudes from the text block, otherwise clean and sound.