TRAVEL & EXPLORATION 96 First Edition Of Portlock’s Illustrated Voyage To Hawaii And The Northwest Coast, 1789 106PORTLOCK, Nathaniel. A Voyage Round the World; but more particularly to the North-West Coast of America. London, 1789. Large quarto, contemporary full marbled calf sympathetically rebacked retaining original endpapers. $11,000 First edition of Portlock’s account of his voyage to explore and survey America’s northwest coast (including British Columbia, Alaska, Vancouver and Queen Charlotte’s Island), featuring large folding map (20 by 36 inches) of America’s northwest coast, five additional folding maps, and 14 copper-engraved plates, including frontispiece portrait of Portlock. An attractively bound copy. “After the reports of the lucrative fur trade on the northwest American coast had reached England, two ships under the commands of Portlock and Dixon [both veterans of Captain Cook’s last voyage] were sent out. After visiting the Falkland Islands, the two ships made a long stay at the Hawaiian Islands [and were the first captains to visit the islands after Cook], then proceeded to America and surveyed the coast, which was the most important result of the voyage” (Hill I:239). The two ships traveled independently, Portlock exploring the Alaskan coast while Dixon headed for Nootka Sound. Gathering valuable information on the geography, native inhabitants, and natural history of the region, both accounts [Dixon’s account, written by William Beresford but edited by Dixon, was published under the same title, also in 1789] served to further open the region to subsequent traders and explorers. Portlock includes in his account “vivid descriptions of encounters with American Indians and the Russians” which “broadened the perspective provided by the narratives of Beresford and Dixon” (Hill I:239). Text generally clean. Large folding map and one other folding chart with professional repairs to versos; one natural history plate repaired on verso, another remargined. Very good in handsomely rebacked marbled calf.
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