compiled from Authentic Papers, which have been obtained from several Departments. To which have been added The Journals of Lieuts. Shortland, Watts, Ball, & Capt. Marshall; with an Account of their New Discoveries.
First edition, first issue with the medallion on the engraved title-page attributed to H. Webber. Engraved title, slightly toned, and 54 engraved plates including portraits (3), folding charts (7), views (10) and natural history specimens (34); of the latter 31 are finely hand-coloured on laid paper. 4to. Full contemporary calf, gilt, rebacked with original spine laid down, some offsetting of plates but very good. 6, [ii], viii, [viii], [iv], x, 298, lxxiv, [2]pp. London, John Stockdale, 1789.
An attractive copy of the scarce first issue Phillip with 31 hand-coloured plates. The hand-coloured natural history plates being printed on laid rather than wove paper denoting the genuine special issue.
Although not issued in book form until the end of 1789 several months after the spring publication of Tench's Narrative, this remarkably important volume - the official account of the settlement - put before the public the first engraved views of the colony and included the first extensive account of the local fauna.
A compilation of several reports - Phillip's official reports as well as those of Lietentants Shortland and Watts, plus Captain Marshall of HMS Scarborough - the book covers the period from March 1787 to September 1788 and includes descriptions of the first tentative explorations both by land and sea.
It also includes a list of the convicts transported on the First Fleet and, of wider interest, it also includes the first publication of La Perouse's journal which he left with Phillip for despatch back to France. The distinguished list of subscribers includes Joseph Banks (who first mooted Botany Bay as a penal colony), Alexander Dalrymple (Cook's rival for the first voyage), plus the likes of George Staunton and Thomas Pennant.
Ferguson, 47; Wantrup, 5a; Nissen Zool., 3158.
