BOUGAINVILLE, Louis de

Voyage autour du monde, par la frégate du Roi La Boudeuse, et la flûte l'Etoile, en 1766, 1767, 1768 & 1769. Paris, Saillant & Nyon, 1771. In-4 (252 x 194 mm) of 4 ff.n.ch., 417 pp.ch., 1 f.n.ch., 20 folding maps (numbered 1-19, and 16bis) and 3 engraved plates. Marbled calf, triple gilt fillet, ornate spine, marbled edges (contemporary binding). Sabin, 6864; O'Reilly & Reitman, 283; En français dans le texte, 167; Hill, 163. First edition. This is the first French circumnavigation voyage, undertaken on the orders of Louis XV, during which Bougainville discovered various archipelagos of Polynesia and took possession of Tahiti. He brought on board a young Tahitian, Aotourou, who stayed a year and a half in Paris. "The lyrical enthusiasm with which he narrated his stay in Tahiti shook the European imagination and acclimatized in our literature, already open to the theme of the "good savage", the idea of the "happy island", that of a life of happiness, close to nature, in the idyllic setting of a tropical beach: the Tahitian myth was born, and the mirage of the South Seas was going to begin to exert its charm" (O'Reilly & Reitman). The volume, illustrated with 20 maps, ends with a Tahitian-French vocabulary. Spine previously restored; booklet 'F' (with map 3) in duplicate.