Voyage in search of La Pérouse. Performed by order of the Constituent Assembly, during the years 1791, 1792, 1793, and 1794, and drawn up by M. Labillardiere,
Author: Jacques-Julien Houtou de La Billardière (1755-1834)
Year: 1800
Publisher: Printed for John Stockdale and Chez H.J. Jansen
Place: London and Paris
Description:
2 volumes. xxxii+33-487 pages with engraved plates and folding map ; [3]-344+105+[6 ad] pages with engraved plates. Octavio (8¼ x 5¼"), rebound in modern gilt-ruled full calf, spine tooled in gilt, morocco lettering pieces, marbled endpapers in non-pareil pattern. First English Octavo Edition. Published the same year as the quarto edition.
Placed under the orders of Bruny d'Entrecasteaux and Huon de Kermadec , this mission, charged with attempting to find the ships La Boussole and L'Astrolabe, was composed of the flutes La Recherche and L'Espérance, manned by two hundred and nineteen people: La Billardière obtained permission to be part of it.
Labillardière's 'Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de La Pérouse' [1800] is a personal account of an attempt to solve a mystery which began in March 1788. After a five week sojourn following up on James Cook's discoveries, investigating reports of a new British colony and undertaking scientific work the French explorer Jean-François Galaup de La Pérouse sailed out of Botany Bay, New South Wales, and was never seen again by Europeans. His disappearance was a matter of great national concern in France. Just before mounting the scaffold of the guillotine, Louis XVI is said to have asked 'Is there any news of M. de La Pérouse?' In 1791, when the French National Assembly decided to send a rescue expedition, probably the first humanitarian mission on a global scale in world history, Admiral Antoine Raymond Joseph Bruny d'Entrecasteaux was chosen as the commander of its two ships: Recherche and Ésperance.
We know that La Pérouse's expedition was wrecked off Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands. Although d'Entrecasteaux sailed very close to Vanikoro, he failed to discover the fate of La Pérouse and ultimately perished during the voyage. Nevertheless, his expedition made a number of significant geographical discoveries. In Tasmania these discoveries included Recherche Bay, the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and the estuaries of the Huon and Derwent Rivers. In Western Australia, d'Entrecasteaux discovered Esperance Bay and surveyed the Archipelago of the Recherche. He also discovered islands in the d'Entrecasteaux group off New Guinea and named and surveyed the Huon Peninsula. His expedition was of considerable significance in the history of geophysics, for it returned with the first survey of global magnetic intensity, proving that it strengthens away from the equator to both north and south.
Condition: Octavo volumes rebound in modern leather with gilt edges to covers and red and black label to spine in gilt lettering. with decorative lacing to spine. Some occasional staining and toning to text and plates else about very good set.
