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MATTHEW FLINDERS (1774-1814)
A Voyage to Terra Australis; undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in his Majesty's Ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner. With an account of the Shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and imprisonment of the Commander during six years and a half in that island. London: W. Bulmer and Co. for G. and W. Nicol, 1814. 2 text volumes, 4° (297 x 230mm) and 2° atlas volume (510 x 378mm). 9 engraved plates by William Westall in text volumes. (Plates lightly washed.) Atlas with 16 folding or double-page maps, 4 double-page coastal profiles and 10 double-page botanical plates. (Some light off-setting of maps). Modern half calf gilt over marbled boards by Aquarius, spines gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one.
A FINE SET OF THE FIRST EDITION of this monument to Australian discovery and exploration which Flinders completed in 1814 and received an advance presentation copy of on his deathbed. It covers his nine years of coastal exploration which culminated in the first complete and definitive circumnavigation of the Australian continent through the newly discovered Bass Strait. Flinders' long introduction in vol. I covers the history of voyages of exploration to Australia from the yacht Duyhen in 1605 to Bligh in 1791, as well as his coastal surveying voyages with George Bass in 1795-1797 which determined the existence of Bass Strait (a name recommended by Flinders to Governor Hunter). The charts Flinders produced on this voyage were so accurate that they were re-issued by the Admiralty for many decades and form the basis for many modern charts of the Australian coastline. Appended are Longitude tables and notes on compass variation, since Flinders was the first to correct compass errors caused by iron in ships. He also first proposed the name Australia to include both the continent and Tasmania. Returning to England in 1803 in the Cumberland via Mauritius he was imprisoned as a spy for nearly seven years and he wrote much of this work there. Ferguson 576; Kropelien 438; Hill 614. (3)
A Voyage to Terra Australis; undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in his Majesty's Ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner. With an account of the Shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and imprisonment of the Commander during six years and a half in that island. London: W. Bulmer and Co. for G. and W. Nicol, 1814. 2 text volumes, 4° (297 x 230mm) and 2° atlas volume (510 x 378mm). 9 engraved plates by William Westall in text volumes. (Plates lightly washed.) Atlas with 16 folding or double-page maps, 4 double-page coastal profiles and 10 double-page botanical plates. (Some light off-setting of maps). Modern half calf gilt over marbled boards by Aquarius, spines gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one.
A FINE SET OF THE FIRST EDITION of this monument to Australian discovery and exploration which Flinders completed in 1814 and received an advance presentation copy of on his deathbed. It covers his nine years of coastal exploration which culminated in the first complete and definitive circumnavigation of the Australian continent through the newly discovered Bass Strait. Flinders' long introduction in vol. I covers the history of voyages of exploration to Australia from the yacht Duyhen in 1605 to Bligh in 1791, as well as his coastal surveying voyages with George Bass in 1795-1797 which determined the existence of Bass Strait (a name recommended by Flinders to Governor Hunter). The charts Flinders produced on this voyage were so accurate that they were re-issued by the Admiralty for many decades and form the basis for many modern charts of the Australian coastline. Appended are Longitude tables and notes on compass variation, since Flinders was the first to correct compass errors caused by iron in ships. He also first proposed the name Australia to include both the continent and Tasmania. Returning to England in 1803 in the Cumberland via Mauritius he was imprisoned as a spy for nearly seven years and he wrote much of this work there. Ferguson 576; Kropelien 438; Hill 614. (3)