A good, complete set of this early collection of voyage accounts, rare when complete and in reasonable condition as here. This is the first American edition of these collected voyages from the Great Age of Exploration, extensively illustrated. "The Philadelphia edition generally follows the text of the London edition published by T. Carman and F. Newbery, 1769-1790 (20 vols.), though much abridged in content" (Forbes). Individual volumes appear for sale but complete runs of the work are the exception rather than the rule.

A good, complete set of this early collection of voyage accounts, rare when complete and in reasonable condition as here. This is the first American edition of these collected voyages from the Great Age of Exploration, extensively illustrated. "The Philadelphia edition generally follows the text of the London edition published by T. Carman and F. Newbery, 1769-1790 (20 vols.), though much abridged in content" (Forbes). Individual volumes appear for sale but complete runs of the work are the exception rather than the rule.

The first volume is devoted to the early discovery of America from Columbus to Pizarro; the second English, French, and Dutch settlements in America, and the circumnavigations of Schouten and Le Maire and Dampier's voyages. The third volume is almost entirely East Indian voyages, while the fourth includes an account of the Rogeveen voyage in search of Terra Australis, Thomas James' and the Ellis voyages in search of the North West passage, and voyages to the Middle East including the Thevenot voyage to the Levant. Volumes five to seven include voyages to East Asia, Africa, the Middle East Europe and Scandinavia.

The final volume is dedicated to Cook's Third and final voyage to the Pacific, including A Chart of the Southern Hemisphere Shewing the Tract of Capt. Cooks Last Voyage, a finely engraved map filled with comments describing important details such as the northernmost position of the expedition before their progress was blocked by ice, and some amusing, yet less important notations pointing out the location of floating tree trunks and seaweed clusters.

This was just the second map of the Pacific Ocean printed in America, the first having been the extremely rare map which accompanied a very few copies of John Ledyard's Journal (1793) and on which it may have been based, though some details suggest that it was also made in consultation with the "General Chart" from the official voyage account. Despite its title, it shows all of the Pacific Ocean from 70° south to 70° north, and from China in the East to the coast of North America in the West. The South Pacific and its islands are represented in detail, as are the Alaskan and Asian coasts, with Cook's route traced. It includes an early notice of Hawaii with the note 'Owhyhee here Capt Cook was killed 1779'.

An additional six nicely engraved views are also featured, including The Death of Captain Cook, and several portraits of native inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands.

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An interesting point is that unlike a set described some years ago which had 26 pages of subscribers listed, the present set has specific subscribers' lists for Baltimore and New York, the pages of which are numbered from 27 to 38.

Not in the catalogue of the Hill collection.