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WHITE, John.
Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales
with Sixty-five Plates of Non descript Animals, Birds, Lizards, Serpents, curious Cones of Trees and other Natural Productions.
First edition. White, chief surgeon to the settlement at New South Wales, was also an accomplished naturalist. The ornithological and other natural history plates are most attractive ("non descript" indicates that the flora and fauna were as yet undescribed, rather than bland). The journal includes an important account of a voyage from London to Rio de Janeiro, to Cape Town, and of other colonial voyages to Norfolk Island. With a subscribers list containing some seven hundred names, evidence of the contemporary interest in the South Pacific in the wake of Cook's voyages. "White's account contains many circumstances omitted by Governor Arthur Phillip and others. The long appendix is very important as it describes the natural history of the new colony; the first major work of this sort" (Hill). The work was also issued with the plates coloured.
Quarto (295 × 235 mm). Recently bound in period-style full mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with old black morocco title label, boards with double gilt rules, board edges gilt with a metope and pentaglyph roll. Engraved title-page, 65 engraved plates. Very occasional light foxing as usual, else clean; a very good copy.
