Scarce Swedish edition derived from Georg Forster's translation of the Surville voyage account.

Scarce Swedish edition derived from Georg Forster's translation of the Surville voyage account.

Son of esteemed naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster, Georg accompanied his father on the second voyage of Captain James Cook to the Pacific and so established his reputation as an eminent naturalist and philosopher. Georg Forster had long experience translating scientific works, and his travels in the Pacific with Cook placed him in good stead as a translator of Surville. Indeed, Surville was in New Zealand waters at the same time as Captain Cook on his first voyage, although the two expeditions did not sight each other (it is speculated the two navigators sailed within 40 kilometres of each other in mid-December 1769).

Kroepelien notes this is a 'Swedish version, anonymously translated and somewhat abridged by Carl Fr. Landell, of Forster's edited version in German of some narratives of Jean Francois Marie de Surville's voyage.' Forster's original German language translation of Surville was published in Berlin in 1793.