Nouveau voyage a la Mer du Sud.

CROZET, Julien Marie. # 1586 Commencé sous les ordres de M. Marion… On a joint à ce voyage un Extrait de celui de M. de Surville dans les mêmes Parages. Paris : Barrois l’aîné, 1783. Octavo, contemporary speckled calf, edges stained red, spine in compartments with floral tooling, gilt-lettered morocco title label, ribbon marker, marbled endpapers, armorial bookplate to front pastedown, pp. viii; 291, 7 engraved plates (one folding). A fine copy. THE FIRST FRENCH VOYAGES TO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne (1724 - 1772) was a gifted mariner, notably commanding at the young age of 22 the Prince de Conty which aided the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie from Scotland in 1746. By the 1760s he was living on the Isle de France (Mauritius). In 1770 a French vessel arrived bringing the islander Aotourou back from Paris with instructions he be returned to his native home of Tahiti, where he had been collected on Bougainville’s circumnavigation in 1768. Dufresne undertook to return Aotourou to the island, largely at his own expense, but the expedition was struck by smallpox and Aotourou died shortly after setting sail. Nonetheless, the expedition continued, and after claiming the Crozet Islands for France, arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1772. The sailors made contact with the Aborigines and became the first Europeans to encounter indigenous Australians, as well as the first Frenchmen to set foot on Australian shores. Relations between the parties soured, and after a skirmish the ships sailed to New Zealand, only the second time (after de Surville) the French had reached this part of the world. After initial peaceful contact (the French could speak a few words of Maori based on what Aotourou had taught them) the expedition broke a covenant by fishing at Manawaora Bay, and were attacked by the Maori, who killed and cannibalised twenty-six of their number, including the commander du Fresne. Crozet, second in command of the voyage, retaliated against the Maori by sacking a village and killing 250 of its inhabitants, before setting sail to return to France. Du Fresne’s journals were lost but Crozet’s manuscripts enabled publication of this volume in 1783. It includes much detailed information on Maori life and customs. Also included is an extract of de Surville’s account of an earlier expedition to New Zealand. (De Surville, at the same time as Cook, was mapping the west coast). This is the first printed account of the first French voyage to New Zealand. Davidson wrote in A Book Collector’s Notes ‘It is an exceedingly rare item and is seldom available’. Hill 401; Kroepelien 1104, Davidson pp. 98 - 99.