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CROZET, Julien Marie (1728-1780). Nouveau voyage a la mer du sud, commencé sous les orders de M. Marion. On a joint a ce voyage un extrait de celui de M. de Surville dans les mêmes parages. Paris: Chez Barrois l'aîné, 1783. 8°. 6 engraved plates, one folding map (plates somewhat browned). Contemporary French mottled sheep, spine gilt in compartments, gilt leather lettering-piece in one, others decorated with fleurons (extremities somewhat rubbed and chipped, upper hinge split, worm-pits on upper board). Provenance: Jesuits, Marseilles (inkstamp on front free endpaper) -- Ch. Chadenat, Paris (bookseller's ticket on upper pastedown).
RARE FIRST EDITION of de Fresne's voyage and death, from notes by his second-in-command, Crozet. Marion du Fresne's 1771-72 expedition sailed in search of Terra Australis which he envisioned as a French stronghold on the route to India and from which to repel British shipping. It was also partly funded by its commander to return the Tahitian Mayoa to his home, but who unfortunately died en route. The expedition ended quickly and tragically in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand where Marion du Fresne and twenty-one of his men were killed by the Maoris. Crozet's account was compiled by Abbé Alexis Marie Rochon who originally had intended joining the expedition and retained a great interest in it. He included a long extract from J.F.M. de Surville's voyage to New Zealand as the attack on de Fresne may have been in retaliation for the kidnapping of a Maori chief by Surville in 1769 just north of the Bay of Islands. Crozet's observations on Maori life, along with the reports of Cook and his officers, were the only available source material on New Zealand for the next forty years. On the outward voyage a small but significant discovery was made -- the Crozet Islands, midway between the Cape of Good Hope and the Kerguelens. Hill 401; Hocken 21-22; Cox II, p. 309.
RARE FIRST EDITION of de Fresne's voyage and death, from notes by his second-in-command, Crozet. Marion du Fresne's 1771-72 expedition sailed in search of Terra Australis which he envisioned as a French stronghold on the route to India and from which to repel British shipping. It was also partly funded by its commander to return the Tahitian Mayoa to his home, but who unfortunately died en route. The expedition ended quickly and tragically in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand where Marion du Fresne and twenty-one of his men were killed by the Maoris. Crozet's account was compiled by Abbé Alexis Marie Rochon who originally had intended joining the expedition and retained a great interest in it. He included a long extract from J.F.M. de Surville's voyage to New Zealand as the attack on de Fresne may have been in retaliation for the kidnapping of a Maori chief by Surville in 1769 just north of the Bay of Islands. Crozet's observations on Maori life, along with the reports of Cook and his officers, were the only available source material on New Zealand for the next forty years. On the outward voyage a small but significant discovery was made -- the Crozet Islands, midway between the Cape of Good Hope and the Kerguelens. Hill 401; Hocken 21-22; Cox II, p. 309.
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