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.
London: Printed for John Stockdale … and George Goulding, [1789].
Price: $5,000.00
About the item
First edition. Embellished with Twenty Copper Plates (including 6 folding maps). xii, 384, xl pp. 1 vols. 4to. Contemporary calf (scuffed), rebacked, endpapers renewed. Lower right corner of title-leaf missing, with loss of several letters from imprint, small library stamp on title, portrait backed, lower corner missing with loss to imprint and caption, folding map with tape-repairs on verso. Some offsetting from plates, some spotting and soiling to text. Sound copy of a scarce book. Cox II: 27; Howes, US-iana, P487; Sabin 64389; Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography; Smith, Pacific Northwest Americana 8304; Wagner, The Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America, vol. I, pp. 207 & 213; James Ford Bell Library Catalogue P365. Field 1231; National Maritime Museum 141; Hill Volume One, p. 239; Streeter Sale VI, 3485; Lada-Mocarski 42; Wood p. 523.
Item #57561
Portlock and Dixon, captains of the ships King George and Queen Charlotte, set out on behalf of the King George's Sound Company to establish a trade in furs on the northwest coast of America, especially otter furs. Their major accomplishment was the mapping of the coastline, especially their improvement of some of James Cook's maps. Portlock sailed north along the Alaskan coast, while Dixon proceeded south. This book describes the Pacific as well as Alaska, as the two captains kept separate logs, and the copper plates and folding maps were well-regarded at the time of publication. This book has been described as "...the principal account of the first commercial voyage to the Northwest Coast and the first English voyage to visit Hawaii after that of Captain James Cook..." Forbes.
