ENTRECASTEAUX (Antoine BRUNY d') - Lot 428

ENTRECASTEAUX (Antoine BRUNY d') Voyage de Dentrecasteaux, envoyé à la recherche de La Pérouse. Published by order of His Majesty the Emperor and King, under the ministry of H. E. Vice-Admiral Decrès, Count of the Empire. Written by M. Rossel, former naval captain. Paris, Imprimerie Impériale, 1808. [Atlas du Voyage de Bruny-Dentrecasteaux, contre-amiral de France, commandant les frégates La Recherche et L'Espérance, fait par ordre du Gouvernement en 1791, 1792 et 1793. Published by order of His Majesty the Emperor and King, under the Ministry of His Excellency Vice-Admiral Decrès by C. F. Beautemps-Beaupré. Paris, Dépôt Général des cartes et plans de la Marine et des colonies, 1807. 2 volumes in-4 (text); illustrated with 33 plates hors texte (32 in-fine in volume I and one in volume II) - Atlas in plano composed of 39 maps, most of them double-page, by Beautemps-Beaupré and engraved by E. Collin. Untrimmed, uncut copies. Contemporary publisher's blue marbled paper boards, title label on spine (text) - Contemporary publisher's blue marbled paper boards, title label on spine partly detached in pieces (present in the book), lower corners and edges completely rubbed. Rare first edition in its complete form of the account of the expedition of Commandant Bruny d'Entrecasteaux, sent to Oceania by Louis XVI in search of La Pérouse. In 1791, Louis XVI, worried about the fate of La Pérouse's expedition, of which he had no news, sent two frigates in search of him, which sailed from Brest on September 29, 1791. The expedition came to a chaotic end in Surabaya, with no trace of La Pérouse, even though it passed close to Vanikoro, where survivors from La Boussole and L'Astrolabe were probably still living. D'Entrecasteaux succumbed to scurvy off Java in July 1793. His voyage led to the discovery of many unknown lands in Oceania and the Pacific Ocean. Copy as issued, entirely untrimmed, preserved in its waiting cardboard.