LESSEPS, Jean-Baptiste-Barthelemy, Baron de.
Voyage de Lapérouse, rédigé d'après ses manuscrits originaux, suivi d'un appendice renfermant tout ce que l'on a découvert depuis le naufrage jusqu'a nos jours, et enrichi de notes par M. de Lesseps, consul général de France à Lisbonne, et seul débris vivant de l'expédition dont il était interprète; accompagné d'une carte générale du voyage, orné du portrait et d'un fac-simile de Lapérouse.
Paris, Arthus Bertrand and Delaunay (colophon: printed by Casmir), 1831. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece with a portrait of Lapérouse, a facsimile of one of his letters, and a large engraved folding map. Modern half calf. [3], [1 blank], [2], XVIII, 436 pp.
€ 9,500
Facinating work detailing La Pérouse's famous scientific mission to Alaska and beyond. Jean-Baptiste-Barthelemy de Lesseps was an interpreter of Russian aboard of the Boussole, one of the two vessels of the most famous French scientific expeditions of the 18th century, the one under command of La Pérouse. In 1785 La Pérouse and his team left Brest to sail around Cape Horn to Alaska, and from there on they explored the north west coast of America southwards. In February 1787 they reached Manila on the Philippines. From that point they sailed to the north-eastern coastal regions of Asia.
In September 1887, La Pérouse wanted Lesseps to return to Europe to take home the journals and maps of the first half of the expedition. Lesseps went ashore in Kamtschatka, and from there on travelled through Siberia and Russia to reach Paris with the precious documents only two years later. In the meantime, La Pérouse sailed to Samoa, where some of his companions were killed by native inhabitants, and further to Australia. His last reports were received from Sydney; after that never was heard of him again.
It was Captain Peter Dillon who in 1826 found the wreckage of two ships on the reefs of Vanikoro, an island to the north of the New Hebrides, and identified it as originating from the Boussole and the Astrolabe, the other vessel of the expedition. This account, with manuscripts from La Pérouse and notes from De Lesseps, as the only survivor of the expedition, consequently is the only publication that gives us first-hand information about the journey.
The work is concluded with an extensive appendix, which contains letters from La Pérouse, as well as the account of Captain Peter Dillon about his findings on Vanikoro, and a list of the crew members of both ships.
The leather around the spine is slightly faded, the edges of the boards and spine are slightly scuffed, occasionally very slightly foxed, a tear in the large folding map has been reinforced with white tape on the verso of the map. Otherwise in good condition. Sabin 38965; not in Chadenat, Hill.
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