Langsdorff, George Heinrich:

$6,250 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

BEMERKUNGEN AUF EINER REISE UM DIE WELT IN DEN JAHREN 1803 BIS 1807. Langsdorff, in the capacity of physician and natural historian, accompanied Krusenstern on the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe as far as Kamchatka, which they reached in 1805. Also on the voyage was Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, Chamberlain of the Czar and Russian ambassador to Japan. On the way out they stopped in Brazil and along the coast of South America. At Kamchatka, Langsdorff and Rezanov left the expedition for Alaska to investigate the Russian-American Company at Sitka and report to the Czar. The following year Langsdorff sailed with Rezanov and Davydov to San Francisco to obtain supplies for the Russian colony. The second volume describes Langsdorff's journey to the Northwest Coast with Rezanov, and his trip back to St. Petersburg via Siberia. Almost seventy pages of this volume are devoted to their stay in San Francisco, including an account of the beginning of Rezanov's ill-fated romance with Dona Concepcion, the daughter of Spanish commandante Jose Arguello. The visit to San Francisco also saw the establishment of the settlement of Ross and of the Russian fort on the California coast in 1812.The handsome plates were engraved after sketches by William Gottlief Tilesius von Tilenau, who accompanied Langsdorff and Rezanov on the voyage. Three plates relate to California, including what is purported to be the first printed view of the Presidio of San Francisco (this plate was not included i

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