[Bougainville, Louis Antoine de]:

$1,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

VOYAGE AUTOUR DU MONDE, PAR LA FRÉGATE DU ROI LA BOUDEUSE ET LA FLUTE L'ÉTOILE, EN 1766, 1767, 1768 & 1769. "Nouvelle édition augmentée." A reduced edition of this important work, first published in 1771. This edition includes a brief dictionary of nautical terms (twenty-two pages). Bougainville first undertook an expedition to the Falkland Islands and Patagonia, at his own expense, to secure them for French colonization. To avoid possible conflict due to Spain's envy of this acquisition, France gave up the territory to her. The narrative of that expedition was related in THE HISTORY OF A VOYAGE TO THE MALOUINE ISLANDS... (Paris, 1770). After delivering the Falklands to Spain, Bougainville was ordered across the Pacific to the East Indies and then home. The completion of the three-year voyage marked the first official French circumnavigation and inspired much French interest in the Pacific islands. The party collected abundant natural history information concerning the regions visited; a chapter on the Falklands gives the history of their settlement as well. The expedition stopped at many South Sea islands, among them Tahiti, and included is a long section on that island as well as a vocabulary of the natives. Bougainville was in Buenos Aires when the order arrived for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Paraguay, which he describes in detail. An extraordinary capstone to this remarkable voyage was that Bougainville lost only seven out of two hundred men.

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