An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere (First Voyage John Hawkesworth--First Edition, Second Voyage James Cook--Second , Third Voyage James Cook and James King).

London, England: Voyage). Very Good with no dust jacket. 1773, 1777, 1785. Hardcover. Ten volumes, (nine quarto volumes plus one folio atlas volume) all bound uniformly in contemporary tree calf with elaborately gilt-decorated spines with raised bands and red and green morocco spine labels interspersed with gilt stamped image of Cook's ship the Endeavour or Resolution. Volumes have been expertly re-backed. Light rubbing to leather on board edges with some abraded areas. Overall text, plates and maps are quite clean with occasional foxing and a rare small chip or tear to edges of pages. Plate XLII in volume II has a minor closed tear. One plate in atlas volume shows an archival repair, expertly rendered. One leaf in volume 1 missing 3/4" piece from edge. Three volumes from the 3rd Voyage have extra-wide margins. Trimming to several plates is a little tight to plate margins but no content loss was observed. Within several of the folding maps are very small blemishes at folds, not affecting content. Set includes the scarce first edition of the first voyage by Hawkesworth, the second edition of Cook's official report of the second voyage and finally the second edition of the third voyage by Cook and James King. Superbly illustrated with more than 200 engraved charts, maps and plates many of which are folding. All in all, this is an outstanding set with exceptional and handsome bindings and clean interiors. A high point for any book collection on world exploration. James Cook embarked on three circumnavigations between 1768 and 1776 leaving a legacy of reliable maps of most of the Pacific Ocean and the western coast of North America. The official accounts of the three voyages were eagerly sought by a curious public with early editions selling quickly and leading to an amazing array of sets consisting of various editions and collations. The 1773 first edition Hawkesworth volume is accompanied by 52 charts and plates. According to Sabin (30934) , the first edition is preferred for its plates. This set includes the directions for placing plates (not that binders always followed these directions) and the often missing "Chart of the Streight of Magellan". Our 1777 second edition of the 2nd voyage contains 64 plates, maps and charts. The binders added an additional volume to our set which includes twenty-nine plates from the first voyage and sixteen plates from the second voyage, forming a separate quarto volume bound uniformly with the text volumes. The 1785 second edition of the third voyage contains 24 plates with the aforementioned extra-wide margins. The beautiful atlas folio contains two large folding maps and 61 stunning finely engraved plates. Cook's reports were perhaps more holistic than previous reports including observations of astronomy, botany, ethnology and languages. Cook was commissioned in 1766 as commander of HM Bark Endeavour and proceeded to sail and explore thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped lands of the Pacific Ocean from New Zealand and Australia to Hawaii in greater detail and scale not previously charted. His mapping and surveying led to the naming of thousands of features, islands and coastlines which resulted in an evolution of mapping, especially in Europe. Cook's third voyage, after a visit to the Hawaiian Islands, headed west in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. The party sailed northward along the California and Oregon coastline completely missing the Strait of Juan de Fuca in present day Washington. After exploring British Columbian and Alaskan waters, Cook headed back to the Pacific Islands where he ran into trouble. A broken mast led to a month long layover at Kealakekua Bay. During this stay tensions rose and native islanders stole a cutter from the expedition. In an effort to bargain, Cook's party kidnapped the Hawaiian King Kalaniopuu as ransom for the cutter. Negotiations turned out poorly resulting in the death of Cook and four of his men. The third voyage concluded under the leadership of James King. Howes C-729a, Sabin 30934, 16245, and 16250. .