A Voyage Round the World, Performed by Order of His Most Christian Majesty, in the Years 1766-1769

This is an English translation from 1772 of the famous Voyage Autour du Monde (1771) by Louis de Bougainville (1729-1811), French admiral and explorer. The contemporary fascination with global circumnavigation created demand for this translation by John Reinhold Forster (1729-98), which includes many annotations and comments from the translator himself on de Bougainville's observations. Describing all of de Bougainville's adventures on the voyage (which took place between 1766 and 1769) as well as his descriptions of local flora and fauna, the gripping tale includes such interesting passages as the unmasking of the botanist's valet as a woman (the first known to have circumnavigated the globe); de Bougainville's famous descriptions of Tahitian society; and graphic descriptions of the discomforts and perils of sea voyaging in the eighteenth century. It includes a copy of the original eighteenth-century plot of the route, and several plates representing original sketches from the trip.