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Set of 4 Volumes in custom made box.All leather covers with new leather spines and gold titles on plates on spines.Corner damage restored,covers are fine and unmarked,hinges fine.All 4 blocks are tight and sound;Original paste downs and blank prelims,no names or stamps,appaer as unread,very light foxing Occasional.Volume 1 contains transactions from the beginning of the voyage,till our departure from New Zealand,22 chapters in 3 books,370 pages.Volume 2 contains;Occurances at Otaheite and the Society Isles;and prosecution of the voyage to the coast of North America,17 chapters in 2 books,359 pages.Volume 3 containsTransactions with the natives of North America;discoveries on that coast and the Eastern extreamety of Asia,and return Southward to the Sandwich Islands,15 chapters in 3 books,400 pages.Volume 4 contains Transactions of a second expedition to the North,by the way of Kamtschatra,and in returning home,by way of Canton and the Cape of Good Hope,9 chapters in 1 book,310 pages.Followed by a 40 page index and 25 pages of a list of subscribers names.Illustrated with many plates missing.All volumes are in excellent condition. First octavo edition of Cook's third voyage to discover a northwest passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Abridged, and so without all the technical nautical details found in earlier quarto edition, but often preferred by readers because "the work reads more like an adventure" (Hill). On board were a number of significant crew members: William Bligh, James Burney, James Colnett, George Vancouver, and John Webber as artist to the expedition. The voyage took in Kerguelen Island, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Cook, Tonga, and Society Islands, sailed north and discovered Christmas Island and the Hawaiian Islands, which Cook named the Sandwich Islands. "Cook charted the American west coast from Northern California through the Bering Strait as far north as latitude 70 degrees 44' before he was stopped by pack ice. He returned to Hawaii for the winter and was killed in an unhappy skirmish with the natives over a boat. Charles Clerke took command, and after he died six months later, the ships returned to England under John Gore. Despite contemporary English hostilities with the United States and France, the scientific nature of this expedition caused the various governments to exempt these vessels from capture. This voyage resulted in what Cook judged his most valuable discovery - the Hawaiian Islands". Seller Inventory # 000417
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