Chappe D'Auteroche, Jean:

$2,000 · Offered by William Reese Company

A VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA, TO OBSERVE THE TRANSIT OF VENUS...ALSO, A VOYAGE TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND SALLEE, TO MAKE EXPERIMENTS ON MR. LE ROY'S ... The Frank S. Streeter copy of the first English edition, translated from the French of 1772, and adding the account of the Newfoundland voyage. Considerable interest was taken in observing the 1769 transit of Venus, an important event for determining absolute measurements of, among other things, the distance from the earth to the sun. Thomas W. Streeter calls this "a thrilling account of a race against time to reach lower California before the transit of Venus occurred." The party crossed Mexico en route, as the folding plan of Mexico City testifies. "One of the earliest scientific journeys sent to the [Baja] peninsula" - Barrett. Two days after the observation of the transit of Venus, Chappe D'Auteroche and other members of the party contracted yellow fever (the "black vomit") and died. The Canadian section is also fairly extensive, pages 109-160 discussing the cod fishery and methods of catching and preparing the economically important fish.This copy previously sold as lot 104 at Christie's as part of the Frank S. Streeter collection, Apr. 16, 2007.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.