PRESENTATION Copy: Voyages Made in the Years 1788 - 1789 from China to the North West Coast of America. To which are Prefixed, an Introductory Narrative of a Voyage Performed in 1786, from Bengal, in the Ship Nootka; Observations on the Probable Existence of a North West Passage .

MEARES, Esq., John

Edité par Logographic Press [printer], London, 1790

A propos de cet article

Large 4to. Pp. viii, [12], xcvi, 372, [106]. Stipple portrait frontis. by Bestland after Beechey. A complete copy with 28 maps and plates: Ten maps and charts, of which three folding), 17 engraved plates, mostly aquatints with a few stipple and one line engraving from drawings by W. Beechey, T. S. Parry, Meares himself, T. Stothard and C. Metz.Bound in orange-brown calf over original marbled boards; marbled edges matching. Spine ruled and lettered in gilt. Boards rubbed; light wear along joints; corners a bit bumped. Inscribed on the title page: "Helen Weldon 1st Nov'er 1793 / Given to her by the Author". In addition, a note in the same hand has added the word "voyage" to the title page, as well as a simple math function that eludes comprehension. On the last page is tipped in a contemporary manuscript clipping that reads, "Meares's Voyage./ (double rule) / Weldon". One leaf opposite an engraving shows collateral offsetting. An exceptionally well preserved copy devoid of the usual foxing. Meares, the scalliwag with the mind of a punctilious lawyer, provides bonds and other documents by which others attest to the grievances he puts forth and his claims for satisfaction. The work also includes the journals of Captain Douglas of the Iphigenia and of Robert Duffin, the latter concerning the exploration of the Strait of Juan ("John") de Fuca. SABIN: "The voyages of of Meares are an important link in the chain of American discovery, of which he was one of the pioneers. The English claim to Oregon depended mainly on him."The facts of Meares' voyage are well recounted: Dispatched from India by well-heeled British merchants on a mission to trade in otter pelts to sell in China, all the while violating the East India Company's monopoly in the North Pacific by sailing under a dubious Macao flag. But it was not the British he should fear, but the Spanish, who seized his three ships and sailed them down to San Blas, the Spanish naval port north of present-day Puerto Vallarta.While a vital volume in the history of the region, the extraneous high-drama soap-opera that unfolded has since generated a wide shelf of books, thus attesting to the continued interest in Meares and his swagger. Dixon, who had first sailed to the Northwest Coast on Cook's third voyage, took umbrage at the "facts" presented in Meares' Voyages. Dixon asserted, rightfully, that the account was embellished, especially as concerned his presence at Nootka Sound. Thus sprang forth an exciting late-18th C. London dust-up that nearly begat a world war with countries lining up to side with either England or Spain, concerning the events that occurred at Nootka Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island -- a remote, undeveloped and, for the most part, unknown, place on the other side of the world. One can imagine the scuttlebutt in the clubs and coffee houses of Boswell's London: "Now, where were Dixon and Meares when this took place?"EBERSTADT (The Northwest Coast), 85; HILL, p. 195; LADA-MOCARSKI, 46 SABIN, 47260. Three-quarter leather over marbled boards.

N° de réf. du vendeur 12996

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: PRESENTATION Copy: Voyages Made in the Years 1788 - 1789 from China to the North West Coast of America. To which are Prefixed, an Introductory Narrative of a Voyage Performed in 1786, from Bengal, in the Ship Nootka; Observations on the Probable Existence of a North West Passage .
• Éditeur: Logographic Press [printer], London
• Date de parution: 1790
• Reliure: Couverture rigide
• Édition: First Edition.
• État de l'article: Very Good+
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Pacific Northwest Americana