Voyage a la Nouvelle Galles du sud, a Botany Bay, au Port Jackson, en 1787, 1788, 1789. par John White chirurgien en chef de l'etablissement des anglais dans cette partie du globe; Ouvrage ou l'on trouve de nouveaux details sur le caractere et les usages des habitans du Cap de Bonne Esperance, de l'Ile Teneriffe, de Rio de Janeiro et de la Nouvelle Hollande, ainsi qu'une description exacte de plusieurs animaux inconnus jusqu'a present, traduit de l'anglais avec des notes critiques et philosophiques sur l'histoire naturelle et les moeurs; par Charles Pougens

First French edition of this work originally published in English in 1790. The second part, which occupies 256 pages, consists of a succession of translator's notes, particularly rich in information on plants, animals and physical geography.
Contemporary full brown calf binding with marbled decoration. Smooth spine richly decorated with 5 fleurons in lozenges with angular palmettes and roulettes in place of raised bands. Red morocco title-label. Upper board slightly curved at lower right corner, otherwise very handsome copy, almost free from foxing with a few quires slightly yellowed, a trace of pale dampstain at lower corner of title page and following leaf.
The travel accounts relate the first settlement of colonists in Australia. When the British Empire lost its American colonies where all sorts of undesirable persons were regularly sent, it was decided to establish the deportees in New South Wales (eastern coast of Australia). A squadron of 11 ships, 6 of which were assigned to transport criminals, was placed under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, governor of the new settlement. The fleet left England in March 1787, reached Botany Bay in January 1788, and the colony was established at Port Jackson. The account, fascinating in more ways than one, by the chief surgeon of the expedition, narrates in detail the voyage and installation of officers and deportees in the new colony, as well as encounters with the natives.