Details
GEORGE ANSON BYRON, 7TH BARON BYRON (1789-1868)
Voyage of H.M.S. Blonde to the Sandwich Islands, in the years 1824-1825. London: John Murray, 1826. 4° (285 x 223mm). Folding aquatint frontispiece, 11 plates (8 aquatints), 2 maps (one folding), one full-page wood-engraving. (Spotting and staining throughout.) Original boards (rebacked with cloth but preserving original backstrip with remains of paper label, extremities rubbed).
FIRST EDITION. 'This voyage was termed by Peter Buck (Ti Rangi Hiroa) "One of the most gracious acts that one country has ever extended to another." Kamehameha II of Hawaii and his queen, Kamamalu, were on a visit to London in 1824 when they both died of measles, for which they had no immunity. This voyage, with the cousin of the poet Lord... Byron in command, was undertaken by the British government specifically to return their bodies to the Hawaiian Islands' (Forbes). The first part of the work deals with the King's visit to Britain and the early history of Hawaii, the second part describes the voyage and the return of the King and his Queen to Hawaii. Abbey Travel II, 597; Forbes I, 630. Sold with: [Bates, George Washington]. Sandwich Island Notes (New York, 1854).
Voyage of H.M.S. Blonde to the Sandwich Islands, in the years 1824-1825. London: John Murray, 1826. 4° (285 x 223mm). Folding aquatint frontispiece, 11 plates (8 aquatints), 2 maps (one folding), one full-page wood-engraving. (Spotting and staining throughout.) Original boards (rebacked with cloth but preserving original backstrip with remains of paper label, extremities rubbed).
FIRST EDITION. 'This voyage was termed by Peter Buck (Ti Rangi Hiroa) "One of the most gracious acts that one country has ever extended to another." Kamehameha II of Hawaii and his queen, Kamamalu, were on a visit to London in 1824 when they both died of measles, for which they had no immunity. This voyage, with the cousin of the poet Lord... Byron in command, was undertaken by the British government specifically to return their bodies to the Hawaiian Islands' (Forbes). The first part of the work deals with the King's visit to Britain and the early history of Hawaii, the second part describes the voyage and the return of the King and his Queen to Hawaii. Abbey Travel II, 597; Forbes I, 630. Sold with: [Bates, George Washington]. Sandwich Island Notes (New York, 1854).