Details
JOSEPH ROBSON
An account of six years residence in Hudson's-Bay, from 1733 to 1736, and 1744 to 1747. By... Robson, late surveyor and supervisor of the buildings to the Hudson's-bay Company. London: for J.Payne and J.Bouquet, Kincaid at Edinburgh, Barry at Glasgow and J.Smith at Dublin, 1752. 8° (20 x 12.4cm). 2pp. advertisment at front. 2 folding maps, one folding plan, extra-illustrated T. Jeffreys folding engraved map of Hudson Bay. (C4 a cancel, small tear to Hudson Bay map, advertisment creased, some inner margins neatly reinforced.) Modern old-style speckled calf, red morocco lettering-piece on spine.
FIRST EDITION. A fine first-hand account, dedicated to George Dunk, Earl of Halifax, head of the Board of Trade. "This is one of the earliest, and certainly the fullest, of works that had hitherto been published on the Hudson Bay Territory... The territory began to open up after 1763, when Canada passed from French into British possession, and British adventurers from the Great Lakes began to penetrate the country. Robson, with a sound knowledge of the locale and of the personnal of the Hudson's Bay Company, condemned the company for its failure to promote enterprise and development in its lands. Appended to the work is a short history of the discovery of Hudson's Bay and the proceedings of the English there since the grant of the Hudson's Bay Charter; building the stone fort, called Prince of Wales Fort; the sounding of Nelson River; and the course of the Nelson River" (Hill pp.257-8). The author was apparently prompted to write the account after a failure to get his views accross to a House of Commons committee: "want of confidence, and an ability to express myself clearly" meant that the account he gave "was far from exact and full as that which I had intended to have given". Hill The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages p.257; Sabin 72258.
An account of six years residence in Hudson's-Bay, from 1733 to 1736, and 1744 to 1747. By... Robson, late surveyor and supervisor of the buildings to the Hudson's-bay Company. London: for J.Payne and J.Bouquet, Kincaid at Edinburgh, Barry at Glasgow and J.Smith at Dublin, 1752. 8° (20 x 12.4cm). 2pp. advertisment at front. 2 folding maps, one folding plan, extra-illustrated T. Jeffreys folding engraved map of Hudson Bay. (C4 a cancel, small tear to Hudson Bay map, advertisment creased, some inner margins neatly reinforced.) Modern old-style speckled calf, red morocco lettering-piece on spine.
FIRST EDITION. A fine first-hand account, dedicated to George Dunk, Earl of Halifax, head of the Board of Trade. "This is one of the earliest, and certainly the fullest, of works that had hitherto been published on the Hudson Bay Territory... The territory began to open up after 1763, when Canada passed from French into British possession, and British adventurers from the Great Lakes began to penetrate the country. Robson, with a sound knowledge of the locale and of the personnal of the Hudson's Bay Company, condemned the company for its failure to promote enterprise and development in its lands. Appended to the work is a short history of the discovery of Hudson's Bay and the proceedings of the English there since the grant of the Hudson's Bay Charter; building the stone fort, called Prince of Wales Fort; the sounding of Nelson River; and the course of the Nelson River" (Hill pp.257-8). The author was apparently prompted to write the account after a failure to get his views accross to a House of Commons committee: "want of confidence, and an ability to express myself clearly" meant that the account he gave "was far from exact and full as that which I had intended to have given". Hill The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages p.257; Sabin 72258.