First edition of Jefferys' important work, an English version of Gerhard Müller's obscurely published account of Russian discoveries in eastern Asia and north America, which contained the first full narrative of the Bering expedition, a 'most important contemporary account of Bering's discoveries, by a scientist attached to his second expedition' (Howes). The text has significant additions by Jefferys, and thus is not simply a translation of Müller's work. It represents the best contemporary geographical knowledge regarding the question of the Northeast Passage.

First edition of Jefferys' important work, an English version of Gerhard Müller's obscurely published account of Russian discoveries in eastern Asia and north America, which contained the first full narrative of the Bering expedition, a 'most important contemporary account of Bering's discoveries, by a scientist attached to his second expedition' (Howes). The text has significant additions by Jefferys, and thus is not simply a translation of Müller's work. It represents the best contemporary geographical knowledge regarding the question of the Northeast Passage.

The book is especially significant for its maps, in particular the first large map of "Discoveries made by the Russians on the North West Coast of America", showing both Kamchatka and the northwest coast and incorporating some changes by Jefferys, including topographical information about Siberia, as well as descriptive notes about events on Bering's expedition. The second, a large folding map of Canada, shows discoveries from Canada to the west of Hudson Bay and some points on the western coast. Smaller maps depict "part of a Japanese map of the World", from a manuscript in the Sloane collection, and discoveries relative to the search for a passage to the South Sea by Admiral de Fonte and other Spanish, English and Russian navigators.

These maps have an extra importance as we know that along with those in Staehlin's book they figured prominently in the planning for Cook's third voyage and were used by, and mostly confused, Cook himself during the progress of his final voyage (see Beaglehole, Life of Cook, pp. 486-489, 593-4, 599, 604-5, 613, 617, 627, 633).

None of the maps had appeared in Müller's original work, which was published in St Petersburg, where he was a lecturer at the Academy, in 1753 as Nachrichten von Seereisen, the third volume of his Sammlung Russischer Geschichte: it later appeared in French as Voyages et Découvertes Faites par les Russes, with a single map.

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