Voyage a La Baie Botanique; Avec Une Description Du Nouveau Pays De Galles Meridional, De Ses Inhabitants, De Ses Productions, &c. &c. Quelques Details Relatifs a M. De La Peyrouse, Pendant Son Sejour a La Baie Botanique

Hardcover. Contemporary calf; gilt decorated spine; raised bands; red morocco spine title label; marbled edges. viii + 266 pp. Ex library with library stamp on half-title, title-page & p. 263; a couple of very small call number labels on front pastedown and half-title, and very small perforation on title-page, together with perforate printed library name; leather scuffed & worn; corners and spine worn, with chips to leather at spine head & foot; marbled edges slightly faded and boards slightly bowed; interior otherwise remarkably bright & clean with minimal foxing and a couple of pencil marks. This edition includes a large section (pp. 177-262) on the recent discovery of New Holland and New South Wales (Nouvele Hollande et pays de Galles Meridional). Watkin Tench was captain-lieutenant taking the first shipment of convicts out to Botany Bay on the Charlotte. The book is the earliest printed record of the first settlement of Australia. First published in England in 1789 and translated into French, German and Dutch, the French translation going through two editions in 1789. ALL EDITIONS ARE NOW RARE.