FORSTER, Johann Georg Adam (1754-1794)
A Voyage Round the World, in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop, Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, During the Years 1772, 3, 4, and 5. Volumes I-II.
London: Printed for B. White, Fleet-Street; J. Robson, Bond Street; P. Elmsly, Strand; and G. Robinson, Pater-noster Row, 1777. Two volumes. 4to. (11 3/16 x 8 1/2 inches). First edition. Volume I: A4 a4 b2 B-4G4 4H2. [i]-xviii [2] [1]-602 [2]. 624 pp. Title, Preface, Contents, Engraved Folding Chart, Chapters I-IV, Errata. Volume II: [A]2 B-4H4. [4] [1]-607 [1]. 612 pp. Title, Contents, Errata, Chapters V-VIII.
Contemporary tan calf, maroon morocco lettering pieces, marbled endpapers
First edition, with Forster's large folding chart of the Southern Hemisphere.
This, the first published account of Cook's second voyage (1772-1775), was published six weeks before Cook's official version. Forster's work is substantial, even though it was speedily produced to rival Cook's work. The German naturalist Forster and his father, Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798), had served as the official botanists aboard the HMS Resolution during the second voyage. When the Royal Admiralty decided to withdraw their offer to have the elder Forster contribute to the official report due to a controversy over his emoluments, George produced his own publication. The Admiralty had commissioned Cook to undertake his second voyage in the wake of the success of his first. It was perhaps the most important of Cook's three voyages. The purpose of the second voyage was to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible, searching for any unknown southern landmasses, which the Royal Society still believed could exist. But Cook proved beyond a doubt that a fabled Terra Australis Incognita, which was supposed to lie between South America and New Zealand, did not exist. His two ships became the first to traverse the Antarctic Circle, doing so three times, discovering and re-discovering islands in the Pacific, including New Zealand, New Caledonia, Palmerston, the Norfolk Islands, Easter Island, the Marquesas, New Hebrides, Tonga, and the Sandwich Islands. An enormous amount of scientific and ethnographic information was garnered from the expedition, and as a result of the new techniques Cook employed, not one crew member died of scurvy, a remarkable achievement for which Cook was awarded the Royal Society's Copley Medal. Forster, though young, proved a knowledgeable and adept observer; his book is the essential supplement to the literature of the second voyage. The lively, elegant prose and critical detail of his account, based loosely on both his father's journal and, though unacknowledged, Cook's own work, make it one of the finest examples of eighteenth-century travel literature. It is of prime importance, too, in the history of European contact with Pacific peoples. The Forsters' publications reveal the sophistication and enthusiasm they brought to their interactions with Polynesian peoples as well as a sensitivity to the moral ambiguities of contact. "For all the controversy, A Voyage Round the World is an interesting and important account that complements the official one with facts and astute observations on the human side of the voyage." [Rosove] Its confident, visionary style incorporates a good deal of polemic, particularly in its criticism of the treatment of islanders by Cook's crew. It is a thrilling account of life aboard one of Cook's vessels.
BCJC 1247. Beddie 1247. Cox I, p. 60. Davidson, pp. 61-62. ESTC T155479. Hill 625. Hocken, pp.16-17. Holmes 23. Kroepelien 450. O'Reilly-Reitman 382. Rosove, Antarctic 132. Sabin 25130. Spence 464.
Item #41959
Price: $6,000.00