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A complete set of the official accounts of Cook's three Pacific voyages, all second editions; attractively presented in a uniform binding. "Captain Cook's three great voyages form the basis for any collection of Pacific books. In three voyages Cook did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of the southern hemisphere than all his predecessors had done together" (Hill). Cook's first voyage in Endeavour combined an astronomical mission with an ambitious programme of exploration. After observing the transit of Venus at Tahiti, Cook pushed south and west, completing the first circumnavigation of New Zealand and then charting the entire eastern coast of Australia, thereby transforming European understanding of the Pacific. The official account, prepared by John Hawkesworth from the commanders' journals, framed these achievements as a state-sponsored enterprise intended to enhance Britain's maritime reputation. Despite the controversy surrounding Hawkesworth's remuneration and editorial interventions, the narrative established Cook's reputation and set the stage for further state-backed exploration. The second edition, issued later in the same year, adds a new preface in which Hawkesworth responds to Alexander Dalrymple's criticisms and is sometimes preferred for that reason. It also introduces separate pagination for the second and third volumes; in the first edition, pagination was continuous through all three. Cook's second voyage, the only official narrative written by Cook himself, was designed to resolve one of the major geographical questions of the age: the existence of the hypothetical southern continent, Terra Australis. Sailing in Resolution and Adventure, he traversed high southern latitudes and proved conclusively that no such landmass existed within reach of navigation, though he inferred the presence of Antarctica beyond the ice. The voyage also encompassed extensive exploration across Polynesia and the South Pacific, with visits to Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tonga, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and South Georgia, among others. Renowned for its scientific, ethnographic, and artistic record, the expedition also demonstrated Cook's advanced approach to crew welfare, which contributed significantly to its success. Cook's third voyage, completed after his death by Captain James King, sought a north-west passage through the Bering Strait and resulted in some of the most consequential discoveries of his career. The expedition charted the North American Pacific coast from California to Alaska with unprecedented accuracy and made the first recorded European landfall in Hawaii, where Cook was ultimately killed. The official account, edited from Cook's and King's journals, documents major contributions to geography, natural history, and ethnology, and its illustrations form an important visual archive of the regions visited. The second edition of the narrative, typographically superior and preferred even by Cook's widow, cemented the authoritative record of this final, transformative voyage. Beddie 650, 1216, 1552; Books on Ice I.6; ESTC N33260 (first voyage); Forbes 85 (third voyage); Hill 782, 358, 361 (last for first edition); Howgego I C173-6; NMM, Voyages & Travel, 577, 586; Printing and the Mind of Man 223 (second voyage); Rosove 77.A1 (second voyage); Sabin 16245, 16250. Philip Edwards, The Story of the Voyage: Sea-narratives in eighteenth-century England, 2004. Together 3 works in 9 vols: 8 quarto text vols (292 x 220 mm), atlas folio of plates (592 x 425 mm). With all plates, maps and plans as called for. Twentieth-century reddish brown half calf, red morocco labels, gilt ship devices in compartments, publication date at foot of each, raised bands gilt-tooled with geometric roll and edged with gilt fillets, marbled boards, edges sprinkled red. Folio atlas recently bound to style in matching half calf. Twentieth-century bookplate of C. C. Moseley ("mos legem regit") on each front pastedown. Text vols: a touch rubb.
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