Milestones of Science Books

BLIGH, William.

A Voyage to the South Sea, undertaken by Command of His Majesty, for the Purpose of Conveying the Bread-Fruit Tree to the West-Indies, on His Majesty's Ship The Bounty (...). Including an Account of the Mutiny on Board the Said Ship, and the Subsequent Voyage of Part of the Crew, in the Ship's Boat, from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch Settlement in the East Indies.

London: Printed for George Nicol, 1792.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003936

Three parts in one volume. 4to (314 x 243 mm). [10], 153 [1]; [3] iv, 88; [1], 246-264 pp., including engraved frontispiece portrait of the author, 7 engraved maps and plates (5 folding), the 2 maps in the section of the Narrative are printed on light blueish paper. "A Narrative of the Munity" has separate title-page and pagination. Contemporary polished brown calf, gilt-decorated spine with (later) green morocco lettering piece, board-edges gilt tooled (expertly rebacked preserving most of the original spine leather, minor wear to corners); protected in custom-made cloth slipcase with red morocco lettering piece. Text crisp and clean throughout with only some minor age-toning, occasional light offsetting from plates; few pages with light spotting, first and final page with brown staining of outer margins from binder's glue. Provenance: William Lloyd, Aston (armorial bookplate to front pastedown, dated 1806). A fine, wide-margined copy. ----

VERY RARE FIRST EDITION. One of very few copies specially printed and issued to include the "Narrative of the Mutiny" with the 1790 title-page and with separate pagination. It opens with the first part of the first edition of the account of A Voyage to the South Sea, which breaks off at the end of chapter XII (after p.153) and is followed by the first edition (1790) of A Narrative of the Mutiny, on board of His Majesty's Ship Bounty (pp. iv,1-88) and is concluded by the final part of A Voyage to the South Sea, which opens with chapter XIX (pp. 246-264). Chapters XIII-XVIII are thus replaced by the Narrative of the Mutiny. This first version of the Narrative was published during Bligh's absence when he was on his second voyage to the South Sea, and was written and edited from Bligh's journal by James Burney under supervision of Joseph Banks. A second version was included in the first edition of the official 1792 report.
"One of the most remarkable incidents in the whole of maritime history" (Hill) took place after leaving Tahiti near Kotu Island on April 27, 1789. Bligh was set by Fletcher Christian with 18 loyal seamen in the small ship's launch. A six weeks journey, more than 3000 miles, led to Timor. Even during this voyage Bligh was capable of doing a large number of valuable cartographic and scientific observations.
"Bligh presented copies to the Lords of the Admiralty and other influential people in the hope that his account of the mutiny would absolve him from any blame that might be leveled against him because of the incident. (...) Bligh, known in the British navy as "Bread-Fruit Bligh", made two voyages to the South Pacific to transport this product to the British West Indies. During the first voyage he was in command of the ill-fated Bounty (1787-1790); during the second he was commander of the Providence (1791-1793). He had earlier served under Captain Cook, as sailing master on Cook's third voyage around the world. In 1805, Bligh was appointed governor of New South Wales, but from 1808 to 1810 he was imprisoned by rebellious soldiers. He was promoted to admiral in 1811." (Hill). "Seine Charaktermängel waren Eitelkeit, Heftigkeit und Hochmut; seine Bedeutung als Nautiker und Entdecker bleibt unbestritten" (Henze).
The first printing of the complete official edition of Bligh's account of his voyage and the subsequent celebrated "mutiny on the Bounty." A brief Narrative of the Mutiny had been published in 1790 "for the purpose of communicating early information concerning an event which had attracted the public notice," and it had been expected that the account of the preceding voyage would be published later as a separate volume. It was decided, however, to print the entire work, with a revised Narrative, as a convenience to the reader, and as an excuse to correct and expand the original text. Bligh, himself, was on his second breadfruit voyage in 1792, and this edition was actually written and prepared for publication by James Burney and Sir Joseph Banks from Bligh’s journal. For those who had purchased the Narrative, and who did not want the revised version, the text was also printed without Chapters XIII through XVIII (pages 154-245) of this edition.
References & Bibliography: Du Reitz Bibliotheca polynesiana 93; Ferguson 126; Hill p. 27; Sabin 5910; Kroepelien 87; Sabin 5908a, 5910; Howgego p.124-126; O'Reilly/ Reitman 543; Henze I, p.275.

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