PORTLOCK, Captain Nathaniel. 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, John Stockdale & George Goulding, 1789.
4to. Contemporary full olive marbled and polished calf, spine ornamented in gilt and with red morocco lettering-piece, gilt-ruled borders, gilt edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers; pp. xii, 384, xl; engraved portrait frontispiece of Portlock by Mazell after Dodd, 6 engraved folding map and charts by J. Reid and W. Harrison, Longmate, 5 engraved ornithological plates by P. Mazell after J. Woodcock, J. Hogan, et al., 5 engraved views and profiles P. Mazell after J. Woodcock, et al., 2 engraved plates of artefacts from the Sandwich Islands, and an engraved portrait of Tyaana (an Atoui chieftain) by W. Shirwin after Woodcock; slightly rubbed, skilfully rebacked and with minor restorations, occasional light spotting or browning (more so to first map) offsetting to opposite page from portrait of Tyaana, three marginal tears of flaws with repairs to text leaves; otherwise a very good copy.
First edition. Portlock’s account of his important circumnavigation, is 'rich in geographical results' (ODNB), the principal, and successful, object of which was the opening of the fur trade in north-west America. This necessitated traffic with the Indians of the north-west coast, discussed by Portlock in chapters X, XII and XIII: 'vivid descriptions of encounters with the American Indians' (Hill); he also appends some native vocabularies. Portlock, commanding the King George, and Dixon, commanding the Queen Charlotte, did much to improve upon Cook’s earlier charts of the region. Earlier, Portlock had served on both the Discovery and Resolution during Cook's circumnavigation.
Hill II, pp. 541-542; NMM I, 141; Sabin 64389; Wood p. 523; Zimmer 495.
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