Lot 31. FORREST, Thomas.

‘The author served for some years in the navy and made several voyages to the East. In 1770 he was engaged in forming the new settlement at Balambangan, which had been recommended by Alexander Dalrymple. In 1774, when the council, in accordance with their instructions and with a view to developing new sources of trade, was desirous of sending an exploring party in the direction of New Guinea, Forrest offered his services. He sailed in the Tartar, a native boat of about ten tons burden, with two English officers and a crew of eighteen Malays, he pushed the exploration as far as Geelvink Bay in New Guinea. The voyage was one of examination and enquiry rather than of discovery, and the additions made to geographical knowledge were corrections of detail rather than startling discoveries, but the tact with which he conducted his intercourse with the natives, and the amount of work done in a small boat, deservedly won him credit as a navigator’ (Hill).

First edition. 4to, xxiv, 388, 13, [iii]pp., portrait frontispiece and 32 plates (some folding), uncut in original blue boards, rebacked to style, some plates offset to text, a fine example.

[Hill, 623. ]

Rollo Hammet, noted collector of Australiana, 1905-1994 (book label).