The first edition of the first French circumnavigation by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811). He was a very capable mathematician who entered the French army at the age of 24. He went to Canada under General Montcalm in 1756 and served with distinction. He returned to France following the loss of Quebec and at the end of the war developed the idea of starting a colony in the Falkland Islands for dispossessed French Canadians. It would also provide a strategic location before the Straits of Magellan. With permission he set sail and in March 1764 founded Fort St. Louis.

In 1766 Bougainville was instructed to return to formally hand over the islands to the Spanish and to continue a voyage of circumnavigation (1766-69). Reaching the Atlantic side of Tierra del Fuego, he found inclement conditions which meant that it took seven weeks to cross over to the Pacific. He visited various Pacific Islands including Samoa and the New Hebrides. He gives an extensive description of Tahiti. Whilst at Tahiti it was discovered that the valet to the French naturalist Philibert Commerson was a woman whose real name was Jeanne Barre. She would become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. The book also includes a 300-word vocabulary of the Tahitian people provided near the end of the book. His description of Tahiti had long ranging consequences.

He continued westwards and became the first recorded European to see the Great Barrier Reef although he never reached the eastern shore of Australia. He returned home via Batavia and Mauritius reaching France in March 1769. Despite the length of the voyage, he is to be commended for losing only seven people of the original 214. His name lives on in the region and in the tropical flowering vine Bougainvillea. Provenance: with ink stamp to tile of ‘Massilia Soc. Jes.’; ink inscription inside upper board of ‘J. C. Dakin, Invercargill 1939’, (1908-2005) Rhodes Scholar; Juan and Peggy Rada Collection. Clancy 1995); Cox (1935-39) p. 55; Dunmore (2002); Hill (1974) 163; Howgego (2003) B142; Martinic (1999) p. 256, no. 352; Sabin (1868-1936) 6864; Shirley (2004) G.Boug-1a; Suarez (2004).