Terra Australis Cognita or, Voyages to the Terra Australis: or Southern Hemisphere, during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries. Containing an account of the manners of the people, and the productions of the countries, hitherto found in the southern latitudes; the advantages that may result from fu

Edinburgh: Printed by A. Donaldson, 1766. Terra Australis Cognita: or, Voyages to the Terra Australis, or Southern Hemisphere, during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries. Containing an account of the manners of the people, and the productions of the countries, hitherto found in the southern latitudes; the advantages that may result from further discoveries on this great continent, and the methods of establishing colonies there, to the advantage of Great Britain. With a preface by the editor, in which some geographical, nautical, and commercial questions are discussed. Edinburgh: Printed by A. Donaldson, 1766-1768.

First edition, the variant issue of Volume I containing a dedication to Sir Laurence Dundas (no priority). Three octavo volumes in fours. v, [1], viii, 516; [4], ii, 692; iv, 745, [1, blank] pp. Bound without advertisements. With all three folding engraved maps by T. Phinn after Vaugondy; 'Straits of Magellan', 'General Chart of the Indian Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Southern World divided into Australasia and Magellanica' , and 'Reduced chart of Australasia' (each as frontispiece).

Contemporary calf with red morocco gilt lettering labels and gilt volume numbers, band gilt ruled, edges sprinkled red. Some nearly invisible restoration to parts of the spines but otherwise a lovely copy.

First edition of this very scarce and highly important collection of early voyages into the Southern hemisphere. The main source of this work is the French collection of voyages by Charles de Brosses (Paris, 1756). "As De Brosses had proposed that France settle Australia with her unwanted inhabitants, so Callander advises that the foundation of a colony be made on the island of New Britain as a suitable spot for the further exploration and settlement of the vast continent of New Holland, or Australia. He claimed that Australasia must fall to Great Britain because of her possession of sea power. Some of the forty-one narratives appear for the first time in English...[Callander] prefaces each article with a short introduction containing a description of the materials of which it is composed and an account of the writer. He omits many things that do not pertain to what immediately concerns Australia...But important journals, such as Magellan's, Drake's, Tasman's, and some others he gives entirely. Also included are the accounts of Pedro Fernándes de Queirós, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Francisco de Ulloa, Sir John Narbrough, Amédée François Frézier, Jacob Roggeveen, William Dampier, Lord Anson and others...The work is valuable both for its narrative and for its editorial comments" (Hill).

Cox I, pp. 17-18. Hill II, p. 367-368. JCB III, 1494. Sabin 10053.

HBS 65304.

$17,500.