![[TRAVEL] PORTLOCK, NATHANIEL. A Voyage Round the World; but more particularly to the North-West Coast of America: Performed in 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, in the King George and Queen Charlotte, Captains Portlock and Dixon.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/741/1466741.jpg?itok=U11CcJti)
Lot Details
Lot 1079
[TRAVEL] PORTLOCK, NATHANIEL. A Voyage Round the World; but more particularly to the North-West Coast of America: Performed in 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, in the King George and Queen Charlotte, Captains Portlock and Dixon.
London: John Stockdale and George Goulding, 1789. Full modern calf antique, new endpapers. First edition. 11 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches (29 x 23.5 cm); xii, 384, xl pp.; engraved portrait frontispiece, large folding map of the Northwest Coast of America by J. Reid, 5 engraved folding maps and 13 engraved plates and maps, those of the birds hand-colored (20 plates, as called for). Light binding wear, offsetting from plates to text as usual, creasing and a short tear to the gutter of the large map.
This was the first commercial voyage to the Pacific Northwest Coast of America, and the first British voyage to Hawaii following James Cook's. The impetus was to make inroads into the fur trade in the Northwest, which the Russians had dominated until that time. The King George's Sound Company was formed in London in May, 1785, purchasing two vessels, which they renamed the King George and Queen Charlotte. Portlock, who was in overall charge of the expedition, commanded the former, and Dixon the latter. Both men had served on Cook's third voyage, and so were familiar with the region. The ships sailed from Gravesend on 29 August 1785, not returning until 24 August 1788. Their three-year voyage was a success both as a journey of exploration, with a thorough survey of the coast of the Northwest accomplished, and as a commercial venture. Portlock went on to sail with Bligh on the second breadfruit voyage, and he commanded a successful attack on a Dutch sloop in 1799, and was made Post. The coloring on the bird plates in this copy is likely early, but we do not note other copies thus. Cox II: 27-28; Forbes:161; Hill 117; Howes D-365; Lada-Mocarski 43; Sabin 20364; Streeter VI: 3484; Wickersham 6574.
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