Jacob Le Maire
Mirror of the Australian Navigation: limited edition

96-page exact facsimile of the rare original Dutch printing of 1622. 65-page exact facsimile of the original English text by Alexander Dalrymple of 1770. Introductory essay by Dr Edward Duyker, New South Wales History Fellow.

Folio (302 x 196 mm.), 196 pages, with 15 illustrations in colour and black & white printed on Raleigh Oxford cream paper; hand-bound in quarter alum-tawed goat skin with marbled paper sides.

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Australian: $248 (Approx. US $227, Euro €166)
ISBN 9781875567256

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About the Book

THE STANDARD EDITION Edited by Hordern House for the Australian National Maritime Museum
The first voyage to open up the Pacific via Cape Horn.
The search for Terra Australis, directly inspired by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Ferdinandez de Quiros' voyage of 1605-1606.
The first faithful reproduction of the book since 1622, and first ever reproduction of the rare original coloured illustrations. The first time the English text of Alexander Dalrymple has been issued together with the original Dutch work. A new examination of the Dutch East Indies Company and their monopoly of the spice trade. Essay written by Dr Edward Duyker, New South Wales History Fellow, and expert on Dutch Australian history. Edition strictly limited to 900 copies. Fifth publication in the Australian Maritime Series, winner of the prestigious 1991 Galley Club of Sydney Award for Excellence. SUPPORT THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM COLLECT AN IMPORTANT AND FASCINATING SERIES THE VOC AND THE SPICE TRADE Throughout the sixteenth century the spice trade in the East Indies built excessive wealth in Portugal. Like most commercial advantages of the time, this was achieved by control of sea routes, particularly the domination of the route to the East Indies via the Cape of Good Hope. After one hundred years of Portuguese monopoly, the Dutch responded by taking control of the spice trade at its source and, for over twenty-one years, they dominated trade and navigation to the Indies including the routes east of the Cape of Good Hope and to the west via the Strait of Magellan. In 1602 Dutch merchants trading in the East Indies joined together to form the VOC - the Dutch East Indies Company. It soon became the most powerful of Holland's trading houses and later became the world's largest company, in existence for over two hundred years. It built over 1600 ships called East Indiamen.
JACOB LE MAIRE AND HIS VOYAGE It was nutmeg and pepper that drove the wealthy and powerful Dutch merchant Isaac Le Maire to try to break the VOC monopoly on trade routes to the East Indies, and inspired him to mount an expedition that would forge a new route to the lucrative spice sources via the southern-most tip of America, through uncharted and dangerous waters. Influenced by the famous voyage of Pedro Ferdinandos de Quiros, the Portuguese navigator who believed he had touched upon Terra Australis, the great southland, Le Maire set up The Australian Company (Australische of Zuid Compagnie). The expedition he mounted had a dual goal: to chart a new course to the Pacific and to find the great southern continent. Le Maire appointed his son Jacob, the eldest of his twenty-two children, to command the expedition. He was joined by experienced mariner Willem Schouten, who skippered the Eendracht, and Jacob's younger brother Jan, who skippered the Hoorn. The ships sailed on 14 June 1615 on a mission whose purpose was kept secret from the crew for four months. The expedition successfully plotted a new sailing route to the Pacific under Cape Horn (which they named in honour of their home-base), rather than going through the VOC-controlled Strait of Magellan. As a result they established for evermore a new sailing route from the "old world" to the Pacific. For centuries after, the Pacific discoveries they made would be admired by great explorers including Tasman, Bougainville and James Cook. In fact, their voyage was a prelude to the 1642-3 voyage of Abel Tasman who, on the final leg of his voyage, sailed through seas first crossed and charted by Le Maire. Such was their navigational achievement that when the ship arrived in Jakarta in October 1616, the Governor-General, Jan Pietersz Coen, refused to believe that Le Maire and Schouten could have found a new passage to the Pacific. He ordered the seizure of the Eendracht (the Hoorn had earlier been lost to fire) with its precious cargo and highly important charts and papers. Le Maire and Schouten were deported on a VOC ship under the command of Joris van Speilbergen. Tragically, Jacob Le Maire died en route, at the age of only thirty-one.
THE BOOK "MIRROR OF THE AUSTRALIAN NAVIGATION" In this series, the original Dutch edition is accompanied for the first time by a faithful facsimile of the English text prepared by one of the great Pacific historians of the eighteenth century, Alexander Dalrymple. Alexander Dalrymple was the first and only scholar to produce a detailed study of the Le Maire voyage in an English edition, published in 1770 in An Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean. Dalrymple was the leading English hydrographer of his time, and his work reflects his passionate involvement in the centuries-old debate over the possible existence of a southern continent - the fabled Terra Australis. One of the documents central to Dalrymple's debate was the journal of the Le Maire expedition. In fact Number 3 in the Australian Maritime Series was Dalrymple's An Account of the Discoveries made in the South Pacifick Ocean previous to 1764.

About the Author

The journal of Jacob Le Maire was first published posthumously in 1622, under the title Spieghel der Australische Navigatie (Mirror of the Australian Navigation). This journal provided the world with the details of the two-year voyage, and ultimately led to due credit being paid to Le Maire for his remarkable achievement of navigation. The original book of 1622 contained many graphic illustrations and maps. A very few copies of this first edition were issued with striking handcolouring. For the first time ever, the beautiful original colour is faithfully reproduced here in this Australian Maritime Series edition. Edward Duyker received his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in 1981. In 1998 he was awarded the New South Wales History Fellowship. Dr Duyker is the author of twelve books including The Dutch in Australia. His most recent book, Nature's Argonaut, is a biography of the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander.