- 1984 edition. Pages 443 to 786
- Published by The Hakluyt Society, London.
- Hardcover with dust jacket. Light blue boards. Format C.
- Very good condition. Some shelf wear, rubbing, fading to dust jacket. Small owner stamp on free front end paper.
Hakluyt Soceity Second Series, Volume 164. Four volume set. This is Volume Two. The other three volumes are also listed. Illustrated. Indexed in Volume IV.
Four of the greatest maritime exploring expeditions were crammed into two decades late in the 18th century - Cook's third vogage, the French expedition commanded by La Perouse, the Malaspina expedition sent out of Spain, and George Vancouver's Voyage of Discovery.
All four visited the northwest coast of North America, but weather and circumstances prevented Cook from making more than what Beaglehole calls 'a magnificent, and epoch-making reconnaissance'; La Perouse only touched the coast in a significant way at Yakutat Bay and Lituya Bay; and Malaspina's memorable visits were to Yakutat Bay and Nootka Sound.
Vancouver, by contrast, surveyed the enormous extent of coast from Lower California to Cook Inlet, and his meticulous survey literally put on the map of the world the intricacies of Puget Sound and the western coast of mainland Canada. It was an achievement that places him with his mentor, Cook, in the first rank of marine surveyors.
As a midshipman Vancouver had been with Cook when he discovered the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands in 1778. They attracted his interest, and the attention he devoted to the islands, their inhabitants and their political future when he later twice wintered there will surprise many.
This is the first annotated edition of Vancouver's journal as he revised it for publication in 1798. The original manuscript has disappeared, but fortunately no fewer than twenty-five partial or complete logs or journals by ohter members of the expedition have survived. These supplement Vancouver's narrative at many points.
It has been possible to identify virtually all the host of islands, channels and inlets that Vancouver encountered, and the provenance of ost of the approximately four hundred place names he bestowed, nine ot of ten which are still in current use, is indicated.
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