A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Undertaken, by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. Performed under the Direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, In His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Discovery; in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780.
London: Printed by H. Hughes, for G. Nicol, bookseller to His Majesty, in the Strand; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1785.
Second edition, Four volumes consisting of three quarto text volumes and one folio atlas. Complete with a total of 87 copper-engraved plates. Bound in period-style mottled calf, morocco title labels to spines, ornate gilt tooling to spines and edges. Near Fine with light wear to covers; binding strong and sound. A beautiful set.
Text volumes: [10], xcvi, 421; [xiv], 548; [xiv], 556 pp., 24 single page and folding maps and charts. Marbled endpapers, all edges marbled. Ownership inscription dated 1844 to fly-leaf of each volume. Light toning to endpapers, light offsetting from plates, and occasional foxing. Erased pencil inscription along lower edge of Vol. I title page, short tears to gutter margins of several plates, tiny stain to plate facing p. 410 in Vol. II, , and soft crease to upper right corner of Appendix pages in Vol. III. Contents bright, plate folds crisp.
Atlas: unpaginated, no title page as issued; begins with a large folding map titled A General Chart: Exhibiting the Discoveries made by Capt.n James Cook in this and his two preceeding Voyages; with the Tracks of the Ships under his Command. Followed by double page map Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia explored in the Years 1778 & 1779 and 61 plates depicting people, buildings, landscapes, artifacts, and animals. Toning to marbled paper over boards, light to moderate foxing to illustrated plates, and very minimal foxing to maps. Short separation at fold intersection of first map, lacking several tissue guards, creasing to guards. Horizontal crease to final plate affecting text below illustration. The plate of the "Death of Cook," which occasionally appears in the second edition atlas but is not called for in the list of plates, is not present in this copy. Holmes 19, Howes C729a, Lada-Mocarski 37.
The second edition of the official account of Cook’s final voyage, with the same collation as the first edition of the previous year. The eagerly-awaited first edition sold out within days despite its price of four and a half guineas – roughly $800 in today’s money. The books were printed with great care for George Nicole, bookseller to the King, and A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean is one of his finest works. John Webber was the expedition’s official artist, and his evocative illustrations contributed to the book’s commercial success.
James Cook (1728–1779) was one of the greatest navigators in maritime history. The son of a laborer, he went to sea as a teenager and worked his way up the ranks, switching from the merchant navy to the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw combat in the Seven Years War and proved himself good at surveying rivers and coastlines in Canada. When the Royal Society proposed an expedition to the south Pacific to observe the transit of Venus across the face of the sun, Cook was chosen to command it. He sailed for Tahiti on the Endeavor in 1768, accompanied by an astronomer, botanist, and two artists. Cook observed the transit and then sailed south in accordance with his secret instructions from the Admiralty: to search for the fabled “Great Southern Continent” and claim it for Britain.
The mythical continent was not uncovered, but the Endeavor completed the outlines of Australia and New Zealand, confirming that they were unconnected to any other landmass. Cook took possession of the Australian eastern coast he had charted in the name of King George, named it New South Wales, and upon returning to England in 1771 was promoted to commander.
The newly minted commander wanted another stab at finding the Great Southern Continent, this time supported by an additional ship. The Resolution and Adventure sailed out in 1772, and the Resolution became the first ship to cross the Antarctic circle. After sweeping the southern Pacific and charting and naming a number of islands, Cook finally decided that the only continent south of Australia was the uninhabitable mass that likely existed beyond an ice barrier he could not cross. Nonetheless, the voyage was scientifically significant and filled in many barren spaces on British maps. Cook was promoted yet again when he returned to England in 1775, by this time an international celebrity.
The following year, Cook set out on his third voyage with the Resolution and Discovery. The mission was find a northern sea passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and although that too was a failure, the expedition accomplished a great deal else. The crew members were the first Europeans to make contact with the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands, which Cook called the Sandwich Islands after one of his patrons. The captain surveyed 4,000 miles of the Pacific Northwest coastline, and the fine engraved plates in the Voyage’s atlas provide a valuable record of the people and places he encountered along his long journey.
That journey was to be his last. Cook had been well received when he first wintered in Hawaii, but the reception was less warm when he returned after a storm damaged one of his ships. Hostilities between the Hawaiians and Europeans came to a head when the Discovery’s cutter was stolen, and Cook came up with an ill-advised plan to hold Chief Kalani’opu’u-a-Kaiamamao as hostage against the boat’s return. An angry crowd confronted him on the shore and he was killed in the fracas, along with four marines. The survey of Hawaii was completed by Cook’s replacement, Captain Clerke, and after another unsuccessful hunt for an Arctic passage the ships turned homeward.
Captain Cook’s violent death made the renowned navigator into something of a saint. One of his first lieutenants was James Burney, beloved brother of the novelist Frances Burney, and her reaction upon hearing the news was typical:
“How hard, after so many dangers, so much toil – to die in so shocking a manner – in an island he himself had discovered – among savages he had himself, in his first visit to them, rendered kind and hospitable, and in pursuit of obtaining justice in a cause in which he had himself no interest, but zeal for his other captain! He was, besides, the most moderate, humane, and gentle circumnavigator who ever went out upon discoveries; agreed the best with all the Indians, and, till this fatal time, never failed, however hostile they met, to leave them his friends.”
The gentleness of James Cook is up for dispute, but the accuracy and impact of his work is not. His voyages of discovery considerably advanced the fields of geography, astronomy, ethnography, and natural history. He laid the groundwork for the expansion of the British Empire, changing the lives of millions of people around the world – for better and for worse. This account of his last and most important journey is a cornerstone of Pacific exploration literature and an essential historical resource.
Price: $25,000