Bougainville, Hyacinthe de:

$22,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

JOURNAL DE LA NAVIGATION AUTOUR DU GLOBE DE LA FRÉGATE LA THÉTIS ET DE LA CORVETTE L'ESPÉRANCE, PENDANT LES ANNÉES 1824, 1825, ET 1826. First edition of the official record of Bougainville's voyage around the world. Hyacinthe de Bougainville, son of Louis de Bougainville, sailed as an ensign at the age of eighteen on the Baudin voyage. His own expedition of 1826 has continued to be overshadowed by such circumnavigators as Dumont d'Urville. After distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars, Bougainville was promoted to post-captain and given command of the Thétis. She was only the second French frigate to be commissioned for a circumnavigation, the first having been his father's vessel, the Boudeuse.The voyage took twenty-eight months, visiting Pondicherry, Manila, Macao, Surabaya, Sydney (a stay of almost three months), Valparaiso, and Rio, among other places. Bougainville returned to France with a fine collection of natural history specimens, and the official account of the voyage was handsomely published after a delay of some eleven years. The major purpose of the expedition was political and strategic, and Bougainville's first report of 1826 gave the French government a survey of colonial possessions in Asia and of the military strength of Manila, as well as accounts of Singapore, the Australian colonies, and Spanish America. He spent several months in and around Sydney, where he collected considerable ornithological material. This ultimately resulted in three drawings by

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