Lot 272: HUNTER, John (1738-1821). An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, with the Discoveries Which Have Been Made in New South Wales and in the Southern Ocean . London: John Stockdale, 1793.

HUNTER, John (1738-1821). An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, with the Discoveries Which Have Been Made in New South Wales and in the Southern Ocean . London: John Stockdale, 1793. 4 o (278 x 212 mm). 5 engraved folding maps and 12 engraved plates from drawings by the author including portrait frontispiece and title-vignette (map of New South Wales with repairs on verso, chart of Botany Bay slightly cropped along outer margin, some spotting). (Title-page cropped at upper margin with loss of the first word "An" in the title, 2C4 slightly cropped at outer margin.) Contemporary calf, marbled edges (joints repaired, front cover slightly bowed). Provenance : William Downes (bookplate); E. Kennedy (bookplate). FIRST EDITION. Hunter first sailed to Port Jackson as second-in-command of the Sirius with the First Fleet in 1788 and succeeded Phillip as Governor of New South Wales. As an experienced navigator he encouraged the exploration of the Australian coastline, and the early discoveries of Flinders and Bass owe much to him. At the end of 1788 he made a remarkable 6-month circumnavigation eastward from Port Jackson to collect a shipment of supplies from Cape Town and from which he continued east back to Port Jackson. Hunter, like Phillip in his account of Port Jackson, notes the the arrival of La Pérouse shortly before his disappearance in the Pacific. Ferguson 152; Hill 857; Kroepelien 620.