A Voyage Round The World; But More Particularly To The North-West Coast Of America: Performed In 1785, 1786, 1787, And 1788, In The King George And Queen Charlotte, Captains Portlock And Dixon…

London: Printed For John Stockdale & George Goulding, 1789., 1789. 4to. pp. xii, 384, xl. 1 large folding engraved general chart, 5 other folding engraved charts & plans, engraved frontis. portrait & 13 engraved plates. contemporary calf, rebacked (slight staining along folds of 2 maps & to top edge of 2 plates – supplied). First Edition. Nathaniel Portlock and William Dixon, both veterans of Captain Cook’s third voyage to the Pacific in 1776-80, were engaged in 1785 by the King George’s Sound Company, to investigate reports of the lucrative fur trade on the northwest American coast and establish a trade on their behalf. Their major accomplishment, however, was the more detailed exploration and mapping of the coast and improving of Cook’s charts of the region. On the voyage out, visits were made to the Falkland and Hawaiian Islands. The two ships later separated and sailed independently for a major part of the expedition, Portlock exploring northward up along the Alaskan coast, Dixon proceeding south to Nootka Sound, and discovering Queen Charlotte Island, Port Mulgrave and Norfolk Bay. Both Dixon and Portlock published accounts of the voyage, but Portlock’s, as Hill points out, is of particular interest and value for his vivid descriptions of encounters with the Russians and American Indians. Several Indian vocabularies are also included. The maps and plans comprise a chart of the North West Coast of America, and sketches of Graham’s Harbour and Coal Bay, McLeod’s Harbour, Part of the West Side of Montague Island, Port Etches and Brooks Harbour, and Portlock’s and Gopulding’s Harbours. Bell P 365. Cowan p. 181. Field 1231. Gagnon I 2786. Hill p. 239. Howes P-497. JCB II 3316. Lada-Mocarski 42. Lande 1393. Sabin 64389. Smith 8304. Strathern & Edwards 450. Streeter VI 3485. TPL 599. Wagner, Cartography, I pp. 207, 213; Maps 738-743.\. 1st Edition.