BYRON, John (1723-1786). A Voyage round the World, in His Majesty's Ship The Dolphin. London, 1767. FIRST EDITION.
8vo (209 x 125 mm). 3 engraved plates. (Slight offsetting and browning to plates, occasional minor spotting.) Contemporary speckled calf gilt, spine gilt (front hinge cracked). Provenance: Richard Croftes (armorial bookplate). FIRST EDITION of the first printed account of the voyage of the Dolphin, which left Plymouth in July 1764 to travel and explore the South Seas. This Admiralty circumnavigation was ostensibly for the East Indies but its true object was discovery in the South Seas with instruction to Byron, its commander, to further investigate New Albion on the northwest American coast. The voyage proved to be relatively uneventful, and the Dolphin, which was the first Royal Naval vessel to be sheathed in copper, returned to England in May 1766. This work is generally credited to the ship's officer Charles Clerke, and precedes the official Admiralty account of 1773 as edited by John Hawkesworth. Borba de Moraes I:138; Hill, p.310; Sabin 9732; Spence 237.
