Voyages.- La Pérouse (Jean-Francois de Galaup) The Voyage of La Pérouse Round the World in the years 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, edited by M.L.A.Milet Mureau, 2 vol., engraved portrait frontispiece, 44 plates and 6 maps, 3 folding, small water-stain to upper margin of portrait, some light offsetting from plates but generally a good clean copy, bookplate of Thomas Hogan Smith, contemporary tree calf, spines gilt with red and green roan labels, a little rubbed, spine ends slightly worn and labels chipped, vol.2 with worn patch to lower cover and upper joint repaired causing discolouration to spine, [Ferguson 269; Sabin 38964; cf. Hill 974, Johnson edition], 8vo, John Stockdale, 1798.

⁂ In 1785 Louis XVI commissioned La Pérouse to lead an expedition round the world to explore further the discoveries made by Cook on his voyages, particularly in the Pacific. Having travelled up the coast of America he crossed the Pacific to Asia, continued down to Australia but disappeared in 1788 en route for the Solomon Islands.
This is one of two editions in English published in 1798 following the first edition in Paris in 1797, this one with more plates but issued in 2 volumes rather than 3. "The narrative of the enterprising but ill-fated Pérouse, is full of interest in all portions, but his relations of the peculiarities he observed in the natives of the northwest coast of North America, are especially valuable. The mysterious fate of this distinguished navigator has never been satisfactorily cleared up. The above account was transmitted from Botany Bay, after leaving this place the expedition was never heard of again" (Sabin).