Adventure & Exploration Library of Steve Fossett

8vo (190 x 111 mm). 2 folding engraved maps; 3 title-pages. (Pale spotting.) 19th-century tan russia, panelled in gilt and blind (rebacked in tan morocco, one corner chipped). Provenance: John Hunter (bookplate); Charles W. G. Howard (bookplate). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of the narratives of the first Europeans to traverse these regions. The first part comprises "Voyages and Discoveries...up the River of Amazon to Quito in Peru, and back again to Brazil by Acuna"; followed by Acarete du Biscay's "An Account of a Voyage up the River de la Plata, and thence over Land to Peru"; and concludes with "A Journal of the Travels of John Grillet and Francis Bechamel into Guiana, in the Year 1674." Parts II and III have separate title-pages. "The work of Acuna, bishop of Caracas, tells of the Spanish expedition under Pedro Teixeira which left Quito in 1639 and descended the whole course of the Amazon to Para ...This work gave for the first time scientific observations on the upper Amazon and descriptions of its Indian inhabitants" (Hill). The map by Sanson d'Abbeville is entitled "The Course of the river of Amazons" the other map depicts the "Provinces of Paraguay and Tucuman with the River Plate." Borba de Moraes I:12 ("It is a rare book"); Hill 1788; Palau 2487; Sabin 152; Wing V-746; ESTC R1215.