MIDDLETON, Christopher (d. 1770). A Vindication of the Conduct of Captain Christopher Middleton, in a Late Voyage on Board His Majesty's Ship the Furnace, for Discovering a North-west Passage to the Western American Ocean. In Answer to certain Objections and Aspersions of Arthur Dobbs, Esq. London: printed by the Author, 1743.
MIDDLETON, Christopher (d. 1770). A Vindication of the Conduct of Captain Christopher Middleton, in a Late Voyage on Board His Majesty's Ship the Furnace, for Discovering a North-west Passage to the Western American Ocean. In Answer to certain Objections and Aspersions of Arthur Dobbs, Esq. London: printed by the Author, 1743.

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MIDDLETON, Christopher (d. 1770). A Vindication of the Conduct of Captain Christopher Middleton, in a Late Voyage on Board His Majesty's Ship the Furnace, for Discovering a North-west Passage to the Western American Ocean. In Answer to certain Objections and Aspersions of Arthur Dobbs, Esq. London: printed by the Author, 1743.

8o (207 x 128 mm). (R3 with repaired tear crossing text, a few other marginal repairs.) 20th-century green half morocco, marbled boards. Provenance: Thomas W. Streeter (bookplate; penciled notations on endpapers; his sale part VI, Parke Bernet, 23 April 1969, lot 3636).

FIRST EDITION. The Vindication is the first in the long series of attacks and rejoinders by the merchant Dobbs and Capt. Middleton. Only Dobbs's unpublished letter to the Admiralty demanding an investigation precedes this in the sequence of the debate. (See lots 155-160 for Dobbs's works.) Alden & Landis 743/157; JCB (3) III:743; Sabin 48858; Staton & Tremaine/TPL 187; Streeter sale VI: 3636 (this copy). VERY RARE.

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