Voyage Au Cap De Bonne-Esperance et du Monde Avec Capitaine Cook et principalement dans le pays des Hottentots et des Caffres.
Paris: Buisson, 1787. Hardcover. A handsome period set of the first octavo edition in French, published simultaneously with the quarto edition. Observations by one of Cook's naturalists on his second voyage, including an account of the voyage south into the Antarctic circle, the first ship to do so. Sparrman, a Swedish naturalist and former pupil of Linnaeus, joined Cook's vessels at the Cape at Dr. Forster's request and expense, to assist in the natural history work. His account of the voyage occupies only 24 pages, but it includes mention of a hairbreadth escape from collision of Cook's two ships, the Adventure and the Resolution, not recorded elsewhere. Mendelssohn V.2, pp 414: "...the narrative of their travels is interesting and instructive, and is described by Theal as the 'most trustworthy account of the Cape Colony and the various races of people then residing in it that had been published in the eighteenth century..." Early bookplate of the "Freres Jacquenod, rue merciere, a Lyon." Spence 1148; see Holmes 54; Du Rietz 1220 for 1st edition. 3 vols, 8vo, 389 pp, (2) & 366pp, (1) & 366 pp, (5), folding frontis & folding map & 15 folding plates throughout. Orig. full speckled calf bindings, spines gilt in compartments with red morocco title labels and green morocco volume labels. Item #8851
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