Voyage autour du monde par la fregate du roi La Boudeuse et la flûte L'Etoile ; en 1766, 1767, 1768 & 1769

First edition, with 18 engraved maps et 5 folding engraved plates.
Contemporary tan calf, skillfully restored tear to the first folding map, some marginal restorations to the map “Troisième division - Archipel des navigateurs”. Falkland Islands map expertly rebacked on the outer margin as well as the Magellan Strait map. Map of the Buton Strait with a small marginal tear and a second restored with a strip of paper.
Bougainville undertook the first official French circumnavigation and scientific expedition. Starting from Nantes in November 1766, he sailed to the Falklands, made a stopover in Buenos Aires and then crossed the Magellan Strait and the Pacific through the East Indies. The expedition visited the Samoan Islands, Tahiti, the New Hebrides...
300-word glossary of Polynesian language (Tahiti) in-fine.
“He first went to Paraguay, to the main Portuguese settlement, and gives engaging geographical and commercial descriptions. Details on the Falkland Islands and on Brazil are also instructive. The reader is pleasantly surprised to find [...] the delicious picture of the island of Tahiti. Sailing away from this blessed island, the traveler visited several other islands [...] He stopped over in New Britain, finally entered the Indian Sea, visited the main islands, such as Celebes, Java, Moluccas...” Boucher de la Richarderie, Bibliothèque universelle des voyages.