Hordern House

ARAGO, Jacques Etienne Victor Promenade Autour du Monde... Paris, leblanc 1822

Two volumes, octavo, and small folio atlas; the atlas with separate title, table and 23 lithograph plates; text in contemporary quarter French mottled calf with double labels, the atlas uncut in the original blue-grey boards with printed paper label on the front cover; a fine set.

First edition: a fine and attractive set. This significant alternative narrative of the Freycinet expedition, one of the most important of all voyages to the Pacific, is by the voyage's official artist Jacques Arago, and has a fine series of lithographs by him.

Arago's prolific illustrations in the official account of the voyage are quite different to those that he publishes here, which are notably free by comparison and show his great interest in the native peoples encountered. 'Several of the plates record somewhat gruesome aspects of Hawaiian culture' (Forbes). He writes too in an entertaining style with his text reflecting his keen powers of observation, whereas the official account of the voyage was far more serious and scientific in tone. The eccentricity of both illustrations and narrative in Arago's account made it popular, and it was of course within the budget of the normal reader, whereas the official narrative in its long series of volumes cost about one hundred times more.

The narrative, written in the form of letters to a friend, deliberately omits the 'eternal repetition of winds, currents, longitude and latitude'. It is particularly informative about the expedition's visits to Hawaii and Australia: in each case they happened to visit at crucial points in the local history. They arrived in Hawaii in August 1819, and visited Maui, Hawaii and Oahu, making the last careful examination of the native culture before it was dismantled by western influences.

Extensive portions relate to Western Australia, and to New South Wales where Arago gives an interesting account of colonial society at the close of the Macquarie era. There are good descriptions of Sydney, and the explorers' visits to Camden and the Blue Mountains. The French were entertained handsomely by the Governor and other members of the local aristocracy, with expeditions to the country estates of the Macarthurs, the Oxleys and the Kings the order of the day.
Ferguson, 850; Forbes, 'Hawaiian National Bibliography', 537; Hawaii One Hundred, 26; Hill, 28; Sabin, 1867.

$A22500

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