Voyage Round the World; but more particularly to the North-West

1789. DIXON, GEORGE. A Voyage Round the World; but more particularly to the North-West Coast of America: Performed in 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, in the King George and Queen Charlotte.... London: Geo. Goulding, 1789. 4to. xxix, [3], 360, 47 p. 5 folding maps, 16 engraved plates (some folding), leaf of engraved music. Modern half calf, very skillfully executed in period style. One of the natural history plates is quite foxed, a few others lightly foxed and/or offset, else a very good, clean copy. First edition. Dixon, along with Nathaniel Portlock, both of whom had been with Captain Cook, made this voyage to the northwest coast of America to collect (truncated) furs for a group of London merchants. They arrived at the Sandwich Islands via Cape Horn in the spring of 1786, reached the mouth of Cook's River in Alaska by July, then sailed down the coast as far as Nootka Sound. The winter was spent in the Sandwich Islands, and in early 1788 the ships sailed to Prince William Sound. The two vessels then parted, with Dixon returning to Nootka Sound, where he named the "Queen Charlotte Islands." The account of the voyage, except for the introduction and the appendixes, was actually written by William Beresford. Streeter calls the work "an excellent authority for the early days of fur trading on the northwest coast." Streeter Sale 3484; Forbes 162; Howes D365; Hill 118; Lada-Mocarski 43; Wickersham 6574. (Inventory #: 7094)