1711 An Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries

Description

Folding Maps, Folding Plates, Illustrated, Leather Binding, Very Scarce

The very scarce second edition of Sir John Narborough's secretive voyage in the South Seas, coupled with accounts of Captain Abel Tasman's discoveries of Tasmania and New Zealand, Captain John Wood's attempt to discover a north-east passage to China, and Friedrich Martens' observations made in Greenland.

This work is of particular interest due to the the presence of the scarce early account of Tasman's famous voyage of 1642, in which he visited Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Tonga, discovering Tasmania and New Zealand. Extracts taken from Tasman's own journal describe this expedition.

The remaining journey's are narrated in first person from unidentified journals, with the introduction remarking on 'the advantages of keeping judicious journals in voyages and itineraries' due to the 'improvement of Geography, Hydrography, Astronomy, Natural and Moral History', which these accounts can afford later readers.

With nineteen beautifully illustrated plates, four of which are folding. The three folding maps are absent, although the torn remains of two of them are present. With an advertisement leaf present to the rear.

With the collation: [2], A8, b8, B-N8, B-P8, [1]. C3 (page 21 of part II) signature has been misprinted as B3. 

ESTC reference no. T86883

A fascinating and very scarce collection of first hand accounts of some of the seventeenth century's most important and pioneering voyages and discoveries.