The history of a voyage to the Malouine (or Falkland) Islands, made in 1763 and 1764, under the command of M. de Bouganville, in order to form a settlement there: and of Two Voyages to the Streights of Magellan, with an Account of the Patagonians. Translated from Dom Pernety's Historical journal, written in French. Illustrated with Copper-Plates

London: printed for William Goldsmith, Number 24, Pater-Noster Row; and David Steel, Number 1, Union-Row, the Lower-End of the Minories, Little Tower-Hill, 1773. Second Edition. Full Calf. Fine. Second Edition in English of a primary source on the Falkland Islands. 4to: [4],xvii,[1],294pp, with 16 copper engraved charts (three folding), maps (one folding), and plates (three folding) of native inhabitants and fauna. Period-style speckled calf, spine in six compartments between raised bands ruled in gilt, red morocco lettering piece gilt. The Ingleton Copy (Geoffrey and Nan, with their book plate on front paste-down), formerly the property of Admiral Phillip P. King (with his initialed annotation on p. 273 and penciled marginalia in his hand, including a slip of notations on laid paper tipped in following p. 264. Geoffrey Ingleton was a bibliophile and amateur etcher, mainly of historical marine subjects. King, 1791-1856, was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts.) An exemplary, wide-margined example in a handsome binding, occasional foxing, a few sporadic stains, else fresh and bright, the charts, maps and plates in fine impressions, properly folded and free of tears. Hill 1328. Sabin 6870. Palau 222526. Translated from the French and reissued from the first English edition sheets of 1771 with new title page (Sabin). Both English issues are considered superior to the French octavo editions of 1769 (Berlin) and 1770 (Paris), and include new charts and plans. After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763 ending the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War), Louis Antoine de Bougainville set sail from the port of Saint Malo in northwestern France on the English Channel with a crew of a hundred and fifty people, one of whom, the Benedictine naturalist Antoine-Joseph Pernety, was on board to chronicle the expedition. Bougainville's intent was to establish a colony on the Falklands for the French Canadians (the "Arcadians") who had been expelled from Canada during the French and Indian War and to secure a strategic position for France near the Straits of Magellan on the sea route to the Pacific. (Because his ships and crew originated from St. Malo, Bougainville named the islands the Malouines and planted the French flag at Fort St. Louis on the eastern island in 1764.) At the time, the islands were almost unknown, and Bougainville must have been unaware that the Englishman John Strong had made the first landing in 1690, naming Falkland Sound in honor of Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, Treasurer of the British Navy. Pernety also described a subsequent expedition, in 1765, during which the French encountered a British squadron under John Byron, who reasserted possession of the Falklands on behalf of Britain, nearly sparking the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Spain, which claimed the archipelago as part of Spanish Patagonia. And so began the Falklands controversy. By the time Pernety's account was first published in 1769, Bougainville had dismantled the French colony during his circumnavigation of 1766-1769 in response to Spanish protests. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed.