First edition of Dalrymple's crucial history of the early voyages to the Southern Ocean: the rarer first issue with an earlier (1769 as against the usual 1770) title-page to the first volume, and the dedication dated 1 April 1769 at the start and 14 May 1769 at the end. Dalrymple's book is anyway one of the foundation books for any voyage library: this earlier issue is especially desirable, 'exceedingly rare, and… only a few copies extant' (Hill). This issue is referred to in the Kroepelien catalogue where Du Rietz describes it as 'very rare, not seen' and mentions that it has 'another dedication'. The dedication follows similar lines to the regular issue but does indeed have substantial textual differences to the regular version (which is dated 1 Jan 1770 at the end). There are various other differences between the two issues; the plates correspond to the listing by Dalrymple in his Introduction, except for the additional unlisted plate of "Teepye lobsters".

First edition of Dalrymple's crucial history of the early voyages to the Southern Ocean: the rarer first issue with an earlier (1769 as against the usual 1770) title-page to the first volume, and the dedication dated 1 April 1769 at the start and 14 May 1769 at the end. Dalrymple's book is anyway one of the foundation books for any voyage library: this earlier issue is especially desirable, 'exceedingly rare, and… only a few copies extant' (Hill). This issue is referred to in the Kroepelien catalogue where Du Rietz describes it as 'very rare, not seen' and mentions that it has 'another dedication'. The dedication follows similar lines to the regular issue but does indeed have substantial textual differences to the regular version (which is dated 1 Jan 1770 at the end). There are various other differences between the two issues; the plates correspond to the listing by Dalrymple in his Introduction, except for the additional unlisted plate of "Teepye lobsters".

The book's publication effectively announced the dawn of the golden age of Pacific exploration. Dalrymple had collected together all the major accounts of Spanish and Dutch voyages: beginning with Magellan's voyage of 1519, the Spanish accounts include Mendaña's voyage to the Solomon Islands in 1595, and that of Quirós in 1606. The Dutch accounts include those of Le Maire, Schouten, Tasman and Roggeveen. Dalrymple's long introduction on trade and his 'investigation of what may be farther expected in the South Sea' expound his belief in the existence of a "Great Southern Continent", a theory only laid to rest when Cook later sailed right over it. Publication was timely: Cook's first voyage had not conclusively established the existence or otherwise of Terra Australis and Cook himself recognised that another expedition was required to settle the question. In 1772 he embarked on his second voyage, taking with him his copy of Dalrymple's two volumes: 'they could never have had a more devoted reader. As a compendium of documents in a field which Dalrymple, among geographical scholars, had taken peculiarly to himself, they were invaluable' ( Beaglehole II, p. lxxxix).

Dalrymple had in fact originally been offered the command of the Endeavour voyage to observe the transit of Venus, but partly because of his insistence on being given an Admiralty commission, the command had gone to Cook instead. His disappointment is hinted at in the remarkable "undedications" of this work: to Byron 'who discovered scarcely anything but Patagonians' and to Wallis, the discoverer of Tahiti, who 'infatuated with female blandishments forgot for what he went abroad and hastened back to amuse the European world with stories of enchantments…'.