70 BAUMAN RARE BOOKS 93DIXON, George, editor. A Voyage Round the World; But More Particularly to the North-West Coast of America... London, 1789. Quarto, contemporary full brown calf gilt rebacked with original spine laid down. $11,000 First Edition Of Dixon’s Crucial Account Of Northwest American Discovery, 1789 First edition, first issue, of this important illustrated fur trade narrative. With 16 copper-engraved plates (three folding), one plate of printed music, four folding charts, and large folding map. Having first sailed to North America as gunner’s assistant under Cook (177679), George Dixon received command of the Queen Charlotte for his own trading expedition in 1785, a venture undertaken with business partner and former shipmate Nathaniel Portlock, now master of the King George. “William Beresford, the trader assigned to the expedition, wrote that Dixon and Portlock had been chosen for their ability as navigators, their knowledge of the Indians and of the best trading spots and because they were ‘men of feeling and humanity, and pay the most strict attention to the health of their ships companies, a circumstance of the utmost consequence in a voyage of such length” (Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online). Dixon and Portlock wintered in Hawaii before proceeding to Prince William Sound, where Portlock explored the Alaskan coast while Dixon journeyed to Nootka Sound. “Dixon was busily employed southward as far as King George’s Sound, trading with the natives, taking eager note of their manners and customs, as well as of the trade facilities, and making a careful survey of the several points which came within his reach. Cook had already denoted the general outline of the coast, but the detail was still wanting, and much of this was now filled in by Dixon, more especially the important group of Queen Charlotte Islands, which, in the words of their discoverer’s narrative, ‘surpassed our most sanguine expectations, and afforded a greater quantity of furs than perhaps any place hitherto known” (DNB). Occasional light foxing to and offsetting from plates. Attractive contemporary calf-gilt binding with expert restoration. A beautiful, wide-margined copy.
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