TRAVEL & EXPLORATION 92 First Edition Of Dixon’s Crucial Account Of Northwest American Discovery, 1789 101DIXON, George, editor. A Voyage Round the World; But More Particularly to the North-West Coast of America. London, 1789. Quarto, contemporary full brown calf gilt rebacked with original spine laid down. $11,000 First edition, first issue, of this important illustrated fur trade narrative, one of the essential early accounts of the American Northwest. With 16 copper-engraved plates (three folding), one plate of printed music, four folding charts, and large folding map, in full contemporary calf-gilt. Having first sailed to North America as gunner’s assistant under Cook (1776-79), George Dixon received command of the Queen Charlotte for his own trading expedition in 1785, a venture undertaken with business partner and former shipmate Nathaniel Portlock, now master of the King George. Dixon and Portlock wintered in Hawaii before proceeding to Prince William Sound, where Portlock explored the Alaskan coast while Dixon journeyed to Nootka Sound. “Dixon was busily employed southward as far as King George’s Sound, trading with the natives, taking eager note of their manners and customs, as well as of the trade facilities, and making a careful survey of the several points which came within his reach. Cook had already denoted the general outline of the coast, but the detail was still wanting, and much of this was now filled in by Dixon, more especially the important group of Queen Charlotte Islands, which, in the words of their discoverer’s narrative, ‘surpassed our most sanguine expectations, and afforded a greater quantity of furs than perhaps any place hitherto known” (DNB). Dixon published this work in London in 1789, supplying an introduction and appendix to a series of letters by Beresford. First issue, with uncolored natural history plates. Occasional light foxing to and offsetting from plates. Attractive contemporary calfgilt binding with expert restoration. A beautiful, wide-margined copy.
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