[Clerke (Captain Charles, RN)], A Voyage Round the World, In...

Estimate

£1,000 - £1,500

[Clerke (Captain Charles, RN)], A Voyage Round the World, In His Majesty's Ship The Dolphin, Commanded by the Honourable Commodore Byron. [...] And, among other Particulars, A minute and exact Description of the Streights (sic) of Magellan, and of the Gigantic People called Patagonians. Together with An Accurate Account of Seven Islands lately discovered in the South Seas, first edition, London: Printed for J. Newbery, and F. Newbery, 1767, original recto and verso blanks, engraved frontispiece, collating: [iv], 186, [2]pp (adverts), 2 engraved plates, 20th c calf over boards, some bowing, later endpapers, 8vo, [Hill 311; Sabin 9732; Spence 237] 

Provenance: 1) Lawrence Maydwell (1720-1788) & his wife Anna Maria Maydwell (1721-1803), of Market Deeping, Lincolnshire; title-page with each of their respective manuscript ownership inscriptions. 2) Wm. Savile, 1832; MS inscription to original recto blank. 

The first edition of the earliest account of the voyage of the Dolphin to the South Seas. The Dolphin set sail from Plymouth in 1764, ostensibly for East Asia but really to explore the South Seas - a mission not divulged to the crew until they had left Rio de Janeiro. This edition was published six years before Hawkesworth’s official account, and still attracts interest for its strange description and illustrations of giants in Patagonia. This report, signed only 'an officer on board said ship,' is attributed to Charles Clarke, who later sailed on all three of Captain Cook’s voyages.