BROSSES (Charles de). Lot n° 22

History of navigation in the southern lands. Paris, Durand, 1756. Two volumes in-4 of (1) f, XIV, 463, 4 pp.; (1) f, 513, (2) pp., seven maps, modern half calf. First edition. Seven folding maps by Vaugondy: Carolinas Islands, Papua New Guinea (2), New Holland, Strait of Magellan, Polynesia, Southern World. Famous collection of accounts of voyages and explorations carried out by the great navigators from the 16th to the 18th century in order to discover a supposedly great southern continent. The work, due to the famous French magistrate, writer and traveller Charles De Brosses, whose aim was to encourage his compatriots to explore and colonize the South Seas and especially Australia, which was to serve as a penal colony, is indispensable for the study of the first voyages in the South Pacific. It contains, grouped in three parts - Magellania, Australasia and Polynesia - the relations of Vespucci, Magellan, Drake, Sarmiento, Hawkins, Quiros, Noort, Spilbergen, Nodal, Schouten, Dampier, Roggeveen, Anson, etc., to the South Pacific. Very complete of the seven paginated leaves 437*-450* (volume I) concerning the discoveries of the Dutch in Australasia which are sometimes missing and of the three errata leaves. Very good copy. O'Reilly, Tahiti, 93