FLINDERS, Matthew

A Voyage to Terra Australis...

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W. Bulmer and Co. London, 1814. Two volumes, quarto, with nine engraved plates; a little light spotting and some offsetting, but in good condition; bound in diced calf (in successful imitation of a diced russia binding of the period), flat spines with double crimson labels, gilt; "standard" atlas with some more noticeable spotting and offsetting, one of the larger charts with inoffensive worming, in matching binding, first-issue plates throughout, with nine large charts, seven single-page charts, two double-page plates of coastal views and ten botanical plates. An attractive set of this classic voyage account. One of the greatest Australian books, this gives the official narrative of the classic voyage of discovery made by Flinders in the Investigator, 'an enlightening and fascinating story of brilliant navigation and discovery' (DNB). As a boy Flinders longed to go to sea, an ambition realised when he sailed as a midshipman on Bligh's second breadfruit voyage. Flinders distinguished himself during the voyage which was, incidentally, the first time that the great navigator visited Tasmania.

The Flinders voyage was a full-scale expedition to discover and explore the entire coastline of Australia (which was the name that Flinders himself preferred and championed). Flinders was the first to circumnavigate the continent, finally establishing that Australia was one large island and not, as had previously been speculated, divided by a navigable central strait.

The three volumes form a complete record of the expedition, including an authoritative introductory history of maritime exploration in Australian waters from the earliest times. The text contains a day-by-day account of the Investigator voyage and Flinders' later voyages on the Porpoise and the Cumberland. Robert Brown's "General Remarks, geographical and systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis", which is illustrated by Ferdinand Bauer's botanical plates in the atlas, is printed in an appendix in the second volume.

The text is illustrated by nine engraved plates and two double-page plates of coastal views in the atlas by the landscape painter William Westall, who travelled as official artist on the voyage. These are in many cases the very earliest views of the places visited and discovered on the voyage. Flinders' charts in the atlas were of such accuracy that they continued to be issued by the Admiralty for decades and form the basis of all modern charts of Australia. All the charts here bear the imprint "W. & G. Nicol Pall Mall... 1814", an important point that identifies them all as being in the correct first issue form.
Hill, 614; Ingleton, 6487; Kroepelien, 438; Nissen BBI, 637; Spence, 'Bligh', p.16; Stafleu & Cowan, I, 1806; Wantrup, 67a.

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