Voyages autour du Monde entrepris par Ordre de sa Majesté Brittannique

àctuellement regnante, pour faire des Découvertes dans l'Hémisphère Austral. Exécutés successivement par le Chef d'Escadre Byron, les Capitaines Wallis, Carteret & Cooke, dans les Vaisseaux le Dauphin, l'Hirondelle & l'Endeavour: Redigés par M. Jean Hawkesworth sur les Journeaux tenus par les divers Commandans, & d'après les papiers de Mr. Joseph Banks. Traduit de l'Anglois. Amsterdam/Rotterdam, E. van harrevelt etc., 1774, 4 vols., (6),IV,XVI,(2),XXXII,388; (6),536; (6),394,(1); (2),VIII,367,(1) p., with 52 mostly (large) folding engraved maps and plates, contemporary uniform half leather, gilt backs and with two contrasting morocco title shields, 4to.

Vol. 1 without half title, else a very good copy apart from some minimal defects, with all plates according to the binder's index in the first volume. In Paris/Nyon appeared simultaneously a practically identical edition titled confusingly enough "Relation des voyages (...) pour faire des découvertes dans l'hémisphère méridional". A copy of that edition digitalized by Google shows that, with the exception of title and publishers, it is the very same book. In Lausanne that same year another edition with exactly that last litle appeared, but in two vols., in 8vo. Our edition is apparently the rarest. The original English edition of this richly illustrated travel account appeared in 1773 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkesworth_(book_editor). Contains large maps of New Zealand, New South Wales, a large part of the Pacific, the Strait of Magellan, the Falkland Islands and the island of Otahiti, and multiple beautiful engraved scenes in Otahiti and Oulietéa.