LABILLARDIERE Jacques Julien Houton de

Relation du voyage à la recherche de La Pérouse, fait par ordre de l'Assemblée Constituante, pendant les années 1791, 1792, et pendant la 1ère et la 2e année de la République française. Paris, H.J. Jansen, An VIII [1799-1800]. 2 volumes of text in-4 (288 x 211 mm) and one large atlas in-folio (534 x 350 mm). Text: XVI, 442 pp. for volume I; 332, 113 pp. for volume II. Atlas: engraved title and 44 plates. Text in root calf, smooth ornate spine, speckled edges; atlas in fawn half-basane, smooth spine (period bindings). (restorations) Sabin, 38420; Ferguson, 307 (text) and 683 (atlas); Howgego, E26; Nissen, ZBI, 2331; Brunet, III, 711; Hill, p.168, for the English edition. First edition for text and atlas. In February 1791, the Constituent Assembly decided to send an expedition in search of La Pérouse. The expedition was entrusted to d'Entrecasteaux and Huon de Kermadec, who commanded La Recherche and l'Espérance respectively. Labillardière joined the crew as a naturalist. Passing through the Cape of Good Hope, the fleet headed for Australia, circumnavigating the continent twice, before exploring New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, the Admiralty Islands and Tonga. The disappearance of d'Entrecasteaux and the news of Louis XVI's death led the monarchist second-in-command to interrupt the expedition in Java, where several crew members were arrested, including Labillardière, Ventenat and Piron, known for their republican ideas. Although the expedition failed to achieve its stated aim - the search for La Pérouse - Labillardière's collections and observations greatly enriched all branches of natural history. His description of the flora of the austral lands is one of the best. In addition, Labillardière gives a very interesting study of the Tongans (natives of the Isle of Friends, now Tonga Island, in the Polynesian archipelago), as well as a vocabulary of several indigenous languages such as those of Malaysia, Cape Diemen, the Isles of Friends, New Caledonia and Waygiou Island. The botanical plates are engraved after Redouté's drawings, the ornithological plates after Audebert's drawings, and the other plates after those of Piron, the expedition's draftsman. A very good copy, collated according to Ferguson.