LA PEROUSE Jean-François de Galaup Voyage autour du monde, publié conformément au décret du 22 avril 1791, et rédigé par M. L[ouis] A[ntoine] Milet-Mureau.

Ferguson, 268; Hill, 972; Forbes, 272; Lada-Mocarski, 52.

First edition of one of the greatest French voyages, published by order of the French government.

La Pérouse, one of the foremost French navigators of the 18th century, left Brest with two vessels in 1785 to explore the northwest coast of America. He arrived there the following summer and explored extensively along the Alaska coast, then sailed south to California. The expedition’s goals were to explore the potential for fur trading ventures, pursue the geographical exploration of both America and Siberia, investigate the possibility of a northwest passage, and establish some French claim north of Spanish and south of Russian claims on the American coast. After his California visit, La Pérouse visited China, some Pacific islands, and the Siberian coast. He sent back copies of his journals, both overland across Russia and via British ships met at Botany Bay in the spring of 1788. After he left Australia, his party was never seen again, and it was not until the 1820s that the wrecks of his ships were discovered on a reef in the Santa Cruz group. When it became clear that something had happened to the expedition, a decision was made to publish the journals he had transmitted home.

“One of the most important scientific explorations ever undertaken to the Pacific and the west coast of North America” (Hill).

The account of his voyage was published by L.-A. Milet-Mureau on the basis of documents that La Pérouse had had the foresight to bring to France, in particular through the intermediary of Barthélémy de Lesseps, who had landed in Kamchatka and who eventually was able to deliver them to the French Kling after a long, exhausting, and dangerous journey through the Russian territories.

“The most significant results of the voyage are the charts of then imperfectly known Asiatic coast of the Pacific. En route to Kamchatka, La Pérouse was the first explorer to navigate safely and chart the Japan Sea and the strait between the island of Sakhalin and the northernmost island of Japan, which bears his name… Of particular interest to Hawaii is the plate that depicts the French ships off Makena, Maui. It is the first fully developed view of that island” (Ferguson). The La Pérouse voyage is notable for its superb mapping of the Alaska and California coasts (discussed at length by Wagner in CARTOGRAPHY OF THE NORTHWEST COAST), including maps of San Diego, Monterey, and the entire Northwest Coast. The atlas also contains numerous interesting views of the coast in California and the Pacific, as well as botanical and natural history plates. The text contains a wealth of scientific and ethnographic information. “It is one of the finest narratives of maritime exploration ever written, and certainly deserves to hold a place of high honor among the great travel accounts of the eighteenth century” (Howell).

The atlas is richly illustrated with a title-frontispiece by Moreau le Jeune and 69 engraved plates, (34 maps and 35 plates). The plates, engraved after La Martinière, Prevost and Duché de Vancy, depict natives and their habits and rituals, birds, insects and shells; the maps, mostly double page, give precise elements on the exploration and details on the coast lines.

A very fine and clean copy; the atlas with stamps from École Artillerie Navale.