This is a complete first edition set of Captain Cook’s third and final voyage across the ocean. The title is Captain James Cook, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean; Undertaken by Command of His Majesty, For Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere: Performed under the Direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, In the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780. Being a copious, comprehensive, and satisfactory Abridgement of the Voyage Written By Captain James Cook, F.R.S. And Captain James King, LL.D. and F.R.S. Illustrated with Cuts. In Four Volumes, London, Printed for John Stockdale, Scatcherd, and Whitaker, John Fielding, and John Hardy. MDCCLXXXIV.
[1784].
This was Captain Cook's third attempt to discover a northwest passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and it was his final voyage because he was killed off the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii), and this recounts the voyage. Initially his ships sailed to Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Cook, Tonga, and Society Islands, then they sailed north and discovered Christmas Island and the Sandwich Islands. Cook charted the American west coast from northern California through the Bering Strait before he was stopped by pack ice, then his ships returned to the Sandwich Islands for the winter and he was killed in a skirmish with natives over a boat. Charles Clerke took command, he died six months later, and the fleet returned to England under John Gore. John Webber was the artist on the expedition.
The books have five raised bands, red labels with gilt titles, brown boards, blank endpapers with “P. Pope, December 7th, 1855” inscribed on the front paste-downs and a Yardley bookplate on the front free endpapers, and the first book has a dedication page after the title page, and the last book has a 35-page Index, followed by a List of Subscribers and Directions for placing the Copper Plates and Directions to the Binder, and a list of pamphlets and books published by John Stockdale at the end.
The set is the first octavo edition and has all the fold-out maps and engravings that are called for. The first book has the frontis portrait of Capt. Cook and a large folding map called A General Chart which showed the routes and discoveries made by Captain Cook, and the third book has a fold-out sketch of Karakakooa Bay and a chart of the Sandwich Islands, as well as the fold-out showing the death of Captain Cook; there are 49 full-page engravings altogether in the four volumes, and the engravings say “Cook’s Voyage, Octavo Edition” at the top. (Sabin 16251)
The first book is 360 pages long, the second is 359 pages, the third 400, and the final book is 310 pages long, and the boards may be the original boards.
The books are 8vo. and measure 8 3/8 x 5 1/2 in. wide. with wear on the spines and at the tips, light browning, the frontis portrait, title page and dedication page in the first book are detached, but present, and there are pencilled notes on the front free endpaper of the first book.