Item #404106 Mirror of the Australian Navigation: limited edition. Jacob LE MAIRE.

Mirror of the Australian Navigation: limited edition

Sydney: Hordern House, 1999.

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.

The Dutch exploring routes to the spice islands in the East Indies

A beautifully produced facsimile. long out of print, in an edition that was strictly limited to 900 copies.

A beautifully produced facsimile. long out of print, in an edition that was strictly limited to 900 copies.

The fifth publication in the Australian Maritime Series, this includes a 96-page exact facsimile of the rare original Dutch printing of 1622, accomapnied by a 65-page exact facsimile of the original English text by Alexander Dalrymple of 1770. The Introductory essay is by Dr Edward Duyker.

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 Quirós, 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.

Price (AUD): $250.00

US$162.75   Other currencies

Ref: #404106