FREZIER, Amedee Francois (1682-1773).
A Voyage to the South-Sea, and along the Coasts of Chili and Peru in the Years 1712, 1713, and 1714.
London: Jonah Bowyer, 1717.

Comparables: Christie's, 2007 - $4,200; Sotheby's, 2012 - $3,125.

4to., (9 1/8" x 6 3/4"). Title-page printed in red and black. 37 engraved maps and views including 13 views, or which one is folding, and 24 maps of which 16 are folding, woodcut music on page 256 (blank fore-edge of frontispiece map extended, faded oval library stamp on verso of frontispiece, title verso, verso of plate 28 and on last page, (upper outer corner touching headpiece, marginal soiling plate 9, a few spots on plates 20, 23, 26, 27, lower edges of pages 313-319 discreetly renewed in one or two places). Contemporary speckled and plain blind paneled calf with later gilt supra libros on the front cover (expertly rebacked to style, with minor restorations at corners, endpapers renewed).

Provenance: early oval library stamp on versos of frontispiece, title-page, plate 28 and on last page; with the supra libros of the Day family, of counties Berkshire, Essex, and Isle of Ely.

First edition in English, containing a "Postscript" by Dr. Edmund Halley, correcting some of Frezier's geographical inaccuracies, and supplying information on the Jesuit Missions in Paraguay. The beautiful maps include North and South America showing Frezier s tracks, the Islands of St. Vincent, and St. Catherine's, towns and bays on the coast of Chile and Peru: Conception, Valparaiso, Santiago, Lima, St. Salvador, and a lovely folding map of Tierra del Fuego. There are a number of plates showing native Americans engaging in local activities, and botanical plates including images of the cotton plant, and a variety of large strawberry. "The first part of this book gives an interesting account of the voyage from France around Cape Horn. The second part relates to the voyage along the coasts of Chile and Peru, describing the chief towns and cities. Frezier, a man of observation, brought back information of considerable geographical and scientific value. Much data is included about the native inhabitants. Frezier introduced to France, from Chile, the ancestor of the modern strawberry" (Hill). Alden & Landis 717/66; Borba de Moraes I:329; Hill 654; Nissen ZBI 1433; Sabin 25926; Spence 482. [72lib854]