Voyage a la Baie Botanique...

WITH THE RARE MAP

Avec une Description du nouveau Pays de Galles Meridional, de ses habitans, de ses productions, &c. & quelques details relatifs a M. de la Peyrouse, pendant son sejour a le Baie Botanique.

First French edition. Folding map. 8vo. A fine copy in contemporary speckled paper boards. viii, 266pp. Paris, Letellier,

According to Ferguson this is the first of the two French editions printed in 1789. Certainly it is a far fuller account than that published by Knapen, and includes an eighty-five page account of the discovery of Australia. This copy includes the Carte de le Baye Botanique et Harvres Adjacens sur la Cote du Nouveau Pays de Galles Meridional: one of the rarest eighteenth century maps of New South Wales. Our copy complies with the Davidson, Mitchell and Kroepelien copies, having the map at p262. The NLA copy has the map at p264.

 

Watkin Tench (1758?-1833) entered the Marines in 1776, and fought in the American War of Independence rising to the rank of First Lieutenant. Following his promotion to Captain, Tench volunteered to serve in the proposed Colony of New South Wales and travelled on board the transport Charlotte arriving at Botany Bay in 1788. An acute and perceptive observer, he took careful note of the new experiences provided by the Australian continent and his fellows' reactions to it. When not writing these down, Tench lead several expeditions into the interior, discovering amongst other things the Nepean River, which he traced to the Hawkesbury. He failed however to conquer the Blue Mountains, the expedition having to turn back at the Razorback. Tench's book was an immediate success with the public, and ran to three editions in England during 1789 and many others in Dublin, France, Germany and the Netherlands. A contemporary review testifies to this success: "A regular, connected, and seemingly well authenticated narrative of the expedition, and of the adventures of the emmigrant. Our author's modest preface, and unassuming manner throughout the whole of this little work, entitle him to our attention and regard" (Critical Review, May 1789). Ferguson, 53; McLaren, 'Lapérouse in the Pacific', 813; Davidson, p75; Hill, 1686 (without the map); Kroepelien, 1280.

.

Stock Code: 224941