Captain James Cook (1728-1779) is best known for his three voyages to the Pacific (1768-71; 1772-75; and 1776-79). His discoveries radically changed the western understanding of the world in the late 18th century. He was the first to circumnavigate and chart New Zealand and provided the earliest European accounts of exploration along the eastern coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. On February 14th, 1779, he was killed on Hawaii after attempting to kidnap the chief of the island.

Many contemporary accounts of Cook’s voyages, including charts and engravings, appeared in the late 18th century. The first official account of Cook’s first voyage was published in 1773 by John Hawkesworth in Volumes II and III of An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere... William Strahan and Thomas Cadell published the first official accounts of the second and third voyages in 1777 and 1784. Accounts of his exploration were subsequently translated into French, German, and Dutch.

This lot focuses on areas in the South Pacific explored by Captain Carteret on the H.M.S. Swallow beginning in 1766. The first sheet features a sandbank, the Freewill Islands in Indonesia, and the southern tip of Mindanao in the Philippines. The second sheet shows numerous coastal views of the Admiralty Islands.

A. Banc de Sable Dangereux... [on sheet with] Isles de Joseph Freewill [and] L'Extremite Meridionale de Mindanao, (7.3 x 7.3").
B. Trois Vues des Isles de l'Amiraute..., (16.3 x 7.1").

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Condition: A

Both are nice impressions on watermarked sheets with faint offsetting. The second was issued folding and has toning, a couple short worm tracks, and tiny tears along the sheet's edges, well away from image.