Relation des îles Pelew, situées dans la partie occidentale de l'Océan Pacifique, composée sur les journeaux et les communications du Capitaine Henri Wilson, et de ses Officiers, qui en août mil-sept-cent-quatre-vingt-trois, y ont fait naufrage sur l'Antelope, paquebot de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales

French first edition in octavo, published at the same time as the quarto edition. It is illustrated with 16 plates, including 12 folding ones (views, portraits, objects) and a large folding map, all on heavy paper. This edition appeared the same year as the English original, and the translation was revised by the Count of Mirabeau.
Contemporary full marbled and glazed sheep bindings. Smooth spines decorated with 4 compartmented fleurons. Red morocco title labels, black morocco volume labels. Triple fillet frame on boards. 2 small cuts at head of volume 2. Narrow split to upper joint at head of volume 1, lower joint cracked at head and tail over 4 cm. Corners bumped, some trimmed with lacks to leather. Overall rubbed. Good general appearance.
The Palau archipelago is situated east of the Philippines, north of Indonesia, in Micronesia; Captain George Wilson and his crew, in service of the East India Company, were shipwrecked on an island near Palau in 1783. The work recounts how they were received by the natives and their king, and how they lived, until the king had a ship built for them to sail to Macao, while entrusting his son to the care of Captain Wilson, so that he might receive a Western education. George Keate, with the aid of the captain's notebooks, established the travel narrative of the ship Antelope which departed from Macao. The introduction is research into the literature of the existence of these islands. The book relates, quite naturally, the customs and habits of the inhabitants. At the end of volume II, a vocabulary of the Pelew language. One will note with interest an episode which shows the king at war against the inhabitants of other islands, and who borrowed 5 men from the captain to accompany him to war, the peaceful relations between the English and the king surely draw their origin from this curious diplomatic fact.
The work enjoyed great success, certainly because the testimony it rendered corresponded to that myth of the noble savage which prevailed in Europe; Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre appeared on the same date.
Bookplate: Library of C. Jameson. Below illegible cipher in black.