Towards the Streights of Magellan, the South Seas, the vast tracts of land bewond Hollandia Nova, &c. Also, towards Nova Zembla, Greenland or Spitsberg, Groynland or Engroundland, &c.

London: Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford, 1694, First Edition. Sm8vo – 19.6 cm. [xxix], (7pp. Contents), 1-196pp. Journal, 1-207pp. Part II – Voyage into Spitsbergen and Greenland. With one full-page illustration, two fold-out engraved maps and 11 full-page engraved plates and 6 fold-out engraved plates. Part II is lacking pages 17 – 33; fold-out plate at p. 32 with small loss at the top inside edge. Modern speckled calf and marbled boards ruled in bright gilt, spine with five raised bands, burgundy morocco label with gilt lettering and decorations. Hill 1475 calls for a fold-out table, but that does not appear to be present. Not in Arctic Bibliography, Hill 1475. Very Rare.
One of very few contemporary printed records of Tasman’s voyage. Of significant importance to an Australian collection, containing one of the earliest accounts of Tasman’s famous voyage of 1642 from Batavia, in which he discovered Tasmania and New Zealand and visited Tonga and Fiji’ (Hill). Also of great significance is the account of Narborough’s voyage in the “Batchelour” through the Strait of Magellan and into the Pacific, which was widely read by later navigators including the survivors of the “Wager” of Anson’s fleet who used this account for their own navigation through the passage. Other works contained in the book include the narrative of Captains John Wood and William Flawes who, in the “Speedwell” and “Prosperous”, explored the Northeast Passage and visited Novaya Zemlya. They concluded the East could not be reached by this route. The narrative of Friedrich Martens’ whaling voyage, here first translated into English, was the first book on a voyage to Spitsbergen and Greenland. In his Introduction, the editor believed to be Sir Tancred Robinson, speaks of explorations towards the South Terra Incognita. He suggests that the Dutch had made great discoveries there they had never divulged. He also speaks of Ferdinand Magellan, Pedro Fernándes de Quirós, Sir Francis Drake, and others who sailed the South Seas’ (Hill).

$3500.00 -