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 THE "HISTORICALLY MOST IMPORTANT"
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COOK, JAMES. A VOYAGE TOWARDS THE SOUTH POLE, AND ROUND THE WORLD. Performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure, In the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. . . . In which is included, Captain Furneaux's Narrative of his Proceedings in the Adventure during the Separation of the Ships. London: Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1777. Two volumes. 4to. Contemporary calf. xl, 378 pages; [vi], 396 pages. Frontispiece portrait in Volume I, fifty engraved plates (twenty-five double page), thirteen maps and charts (six folding). Neatly rebacked, covers lightly scuffed and stained. Several maps with short, closed tears at folds. Some soiling, scattered foxing and offsetting throughout. A very good set.
FIRST EDITION of "the official account of the second of the three great voyages by Captain James Cook, one of the most illustrious of English navigators" (PMM). Following his return from the first of his great voyages (1768-1771), initially undertaken to observe from the southern hemisphere a rare transit of Venus across the sun, Cook enjoyed a new-found fame and recognition. He was "promoted commander and began to move in the society of the learned and the great" (Beaglehole, The Exploration of the Pacific). Not all had been resolved by his contributions to geographical knowledge of the South Pacific, however. In particular, Cook had not disproved to the satisfaction of various critics, including Alexander Dalrymple, the supposed existence of a great southern continent to the East of Australia in the Pacific. It was not long after his return from the first voyage that Cook, together with Sir Joseph Banks, began to advocate a second voyage, and "the primary object of the expedition was to verify the reports of a great southern continent" (DNB).
While the British Admiralty and the Royal Society had been at odds over whether Cook or Dalrymple would command the first voyage, there could be no dispute over who would command the second. On July 13, 1772, Cook sailed from Plymouth with two new vessels, the Resolution and the Adventure, both of the type built in the North Country -- sturdy and with a shallow draft -- with which Cook was familiar from his earlier career in the merchant marine. Cook's second great voyage was under way; "[r]eversing the order of all previous circumnavigations, it touched, in the outward voyage, at the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed thence eastwards" (DNB). Cook continued his "second, and historically most important, voyage . . . by cruising as far south as possible round the edge of the antarctic ice. He again visited New Zealand and, cruising through the Pacific, discovered, or explored again, many of the islands, in particular New Caledonia, Palmerston and Norfolk Islands, Easter Island, the Marquesas, New Hebrides, Tonga, the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia" (PMM). On January 17, 1773, Cook and his crew became the first white men in history to cross the Antarctic Circle. They encountered no "great southern continent" in their traverses of the Southern Pacific.
"The geographical discoveries made by Cook in this voyage were both numerous and important; and by proving the non-existence of the great southern continent, which had for so long been a favoured myth, he established our knowledge of the Southern Pacific on a sound basis. In fact the maps of that part of the world still remain essentially as he left them, though, of course, much has been done in perfecting the details. But the most important discovery of all was the possibility of keeping a ship's company at sea without serious loss from sickness and death" (DNB) from scurvy, "by cutting down the consumption of salt meat and by always having fresh vegetables and fruit on board" (PMM). By the time Cook and his crew returned to England in July, 1775, "[t]his voyage lasted three years and eighteen days, during which Cook sailed upwards of 70,000 miles; and of all his crew he lost four men, three by accident and one by disease. Not one died of scurvy" (Beaglehole). It was an advance that would eventually benefit seamen of all nations. Cox I, p. 59. NMMC 577. PMM 223. Sabin 16245. BT000024.
$9900
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