The Journal 1785-1788

During the second half of the 18th century, Britain and France despatched a number of major expeditions to the Pacific. The greatest contribution by far was that of James Cook, but the voyages of Bougainville, Surville and Marion Du Fresne had each played an important part in Pacific exploration. After Cook's death, France, with the active support of Louis XVI, organised a large-scale expedition to the Pacific, planned to last four years, concentrating on areas of the Pacific left unexplored or inadequately surveyed by Cook. It was to be led by an experienced and highly regarded naval officer, Galaup de La Pérouse. All the major French scientific societies and savants of the times co-operated in drawing up instructions and, overseas, such men as Joseph Banks willingly assisted. The first volume contains over 200 pages of editorial introduction and the annotated narrative of the first half of the voyage, from Brest to the Philippines. The second volume contains the balance of the annotated narrative from the Philippines to Botany Bay, selected correspondence from La Pérouse and other members of the expedition, the ships' muster rolls, further editorial material, maps, a select bibliography and the analytical index. The main pagination of this and the following volume (Second series 180) is continuous. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1993.