voyage - Lot 605

voyage KEATE (George) Relation des îles Pelew, situées dans la partie occidentale de l'océan pacifique ; composée sur les journaux et les communications du capitaine Henri Wilson, et de quelques de ses officiers qui, en août mil sept cent quatre-vingtrois, y fait naufrage sur l'Antilope, paquebot de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales. . Paris, Le Jay ; Maradan, 1788. In-4: XIV, 1f., 384pp. illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Captain Henri Wilson, 15 plates (portraits, dignitaries, topographical views, native objects), mostly folding, and a folding map of the Pelew Islands. Fine margins. One plate detached, marginal spotting on 5 plates and the map. Contemporary ½ brown basane with small vellum corners, fawn title page and gilt fillets on smooth spine, corners dulled. First French edition of the first description of this part of the world, published the same year as the English original. Report on the sinking of the Antelope, an East India Company liner, in 1783 in the Pelew Islands (Micronesia). Deals with the political system, subsistence problems and the rebuilding of a ship. A 2-volume in-8 edition was published at the same time.