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This series includes accounts, by eye-witnesses and contemporaries, of voyages by Europeans to the Americas, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific during the colonial period. Driven by the military and commercial interests of powers including Britain, France and The Netherlands, particularly the East India Companies, these expeditions brought back a wealth of information on climate, natural resources, topography, and distant civilisations. Their detailed observations provide fascinating historical data for climatologists, ecologists and anthropologists, and the accounts of the mariners' experiences on their long and dangerous voyages are full of human interest.

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112 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Maritime Exploration

Page 1 of 6

An Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and North
  • John Narborough, Abel Tasman, John Wood, Friderich Martens
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
  • Originally published in 1694, this record of recent voyages made by Sir John Narborough, Abel Tasman, John Wood and Friderich Martens includes Tasman's account of discovering Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642. Equally engaging, Narborough's journal records his voyage to the Straits of Magellan and his interest in the lands and peoples he encountered from 1669 to 1671. Here also are Wood's thoughts on his 1676 attempt to find a north-east passage to the East Indies, along with Martens' observations on Spitsbergen and whaling in northern waters in 1671. The extracts given here, translated where necessary, offer valuable insights into seventeenth-century navigation and exploration. A selection of illustrations, ranging from maps to depictions of exotic flora and fauna, accompany the text. A key reference for later navigators and for those interested in the history of maritime exploration, the book was also one of the oldest works in Darwin's library aboard the Beagle.

The British Mariner's Directory and Guide to the Trade and Navigation of the Indian and China Seas
  • With an Account of the Trade, Mercantile Habits, Manners, and Customs, of the Natives
  • H. M. Elmore
  • Published online:
    05 December 2015
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1802
  • Henry Mathias Elmore (about whom little is known) was a sailor in the Royal Navy who quit in 1783 and set out for Calcutta to be involved with the East India Company's growing trade. Elmore worked as a commander on its ships, and he decided to write this account of sailing to and within the East, which was published in 1802, in order to share his navigational knowledge and to correct earlier inaccuracies. Although much of the work consists of specific, technical directions for piloting ships around Asia, Elmore's instructions give a vivid picture of the complexities of nineteenth-century navigation and the tribulations of sailing during this time. Some of the voyages he describes include sailing around the Indonesian islands and to the Malay coast, and how to reach China from Calcutta. Elmore also includes notes about locations of valuable commodities, such as spices, tea or gold, available for trade.

Histoire générale des voyages par Dumont D'Urville, D'Orbigny, Eyriès et A. Jacobs
  • Volume 2, Voyage autour du Monde
  • Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d'Urville, Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny, Jean Baptiste Benoit Eyriès, Alfred Jacobs
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1859
  • This four-volume collection was issued by the Paris publisher Furne in the mid-nineteenth century to showcase the adventures and discoveries of recent French explorers. In Volumes 1 and 2 the naval officer Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790–1842) presents a lightly fictionalised account based on his first two voyages to the Pacific on board the Coquille (renamed L'Astrolabe for the second voyage). This was intended for a wider audience and offered at a more affordable price than the large-format scientific expedition reports produced for the French government. The work, illustrated with engravings, was originally published in 1832, but the printings by Furne reissued here date from 1863 and 1859 respectively. Volume 2 describes the voyage from French Polynesia back to France via Australia, New Zealand and Cape Horn. It includes d'Urville's discovery of the location in the Solomon Islands where the explorer Jean-Francois La Pérouse's ships had mysteriously disappeared in 1788.

Histoire générale des voyages par Dumont D'Urville, D'Orbigny, Eyriès et A. Jacobs
  • Volume 3, Voyage dans les deux Amériques
  • Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d'Urville, Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny, Jean Baptiste Benoit Eyriès, Alfred Jacobs
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1859
  • This four-volume collection was issued by the Paris publisher Furne in the mid-nineteenth century to showcase the work of recent French explorers for a readership avid for accounts of exotic foreign lands. Volume 3 is an updated version of an 1841 publication by the influential French palaeontologist Alcide d'Orbigny (1802–57), who between 1826 and 1833 travelled around South America collecting natural history specimens for the Paris Museum. The scientific publications resulting from this fieldwork were greatly admired by Charles Darwin. This lightly fictionalised account of d'Orbigny's travels, illustrated with engravings, was supplemented by information on North America derived from other sources. It went through several editions; this posthumous 1859 printing was further expanded by Alfred Jacobs (1827–62). It begins by describing the Caribbean, focuses in detail on South America, and continues with accounts of the history, landscapes and peoples of Mexico, the United States, Canada, Greenland and Iceland.

Histoire générale des voyages par Dumont D'Urville, D'Orbigny, Eyriès et A. Jacobs
  • Volume 4, Voyage en Asie et en Afrique d'aprés les récits des derniers voyageurs
  • Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d'Urville, Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny, Jean Baptiste Benoit Eyriès, Alfred Jacobs
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1859
  • This four-volume collection was issued by the Paris publisher Furne in the mid-nineteenth century to showcase the work of recent French explorers for a readership avid for accounts of exotic foreign lands. Volume 4 was prepared by Alfred Jacobs (1802–62), an archivist and palaeographer, drawing heavily on an 1839 publication by Jean-Baptiste Benoit Eyriès (1767–1846). Eyriès was a founder member of the French Geographical Society and a member of the Asiatic Society, trained in botany and mineralogy, an accomplished linguist and seasoned traveller, who wrote, edited and translated a substantial number of works on geography, travel and exploration. Like earlier volumes in Furne's collection, this account of Asia and Africa takes the form of a fictionalised journey, making use of a wide range of additional sources to give readers as complete a picture as possible. This 1859 edition is illustrated with twenty-two engravings.

Histoire générale des voyages par Dumont D'Urville, D'Orbigny, Eyriès et A. Jacobs
  • Volume 1, Voyage autour du Monde
  • Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d'Urville, Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny, Jean Baptiste Benoit Eyriès, Alfred Jacobs
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1863
  • This four-volume collection was issued by the Paris publisher Furne in the mid-nineteenth century to showcase the adventures and discoveries of recent French explorers. In Volumes 1 and 2 the naval officer Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790–1842) presents a lightly fictionalised account based on his first two voyages to the Pacific on board the Coquille (renamed L'Astrolabe for the second voyage). This was intended for a wider audience and offered at a more affordable price than the large-format scientific expedition reports produced for the French government. The work, illustrated with engravings, was originally published in 1832, but the printings by Furne reissued here date from 1863 and 1859 respectively. Volume 1 describes the voyage through the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope, and focuses on South and South-East Asia, China and Hawaii, covering natural history, indigenous culture, and colonial commerce. It ends with the ship's arrival in French Polynesia.

A Voyage to the South-Seas, in the Years 1740–1
  • Containing a Faithful Narrative of the Loss of His Majesty's Ship the Wager on a Desolate Island
  • John Bulkeley, John Cummins
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    27 April 2015
    First published in:
    1743
  • The tale of the ill-fated HMS Wager gripped the public's imagination, feeding its taste for dramatic accounts of survival against the odds. Part of George Anson's squadron that had been sent to harass Spanish ships in the Pacific, she was wrecked after rounding Cape Horn in 1741. The majority of the survivors, led by ship's gunner John Bulkeley, mutinied against their irascible and unpredictable captain and chose to make their own way home in what would become one of the most hazardous journeys ever recorded. Their journey took them over 2,000 miles in an open boat through ferocious seas, enduring starvation and extreme privation. Two years after the disaster, the thirty remaining men arrived back in England. Bulkeley and ship's carpenter John Cummins published this account in 1743. Also reissued in this series is the 1768 account of John Byron, who had been midshipman aboard the Wager.

A Journal of a Voyage round the World, in His Majesty's Ship Endeavour
  • In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, and 1771, Undertaken in Pursuit of Natural Knowledge, at the Desire of the Royal Society
  • Anonymous
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    27 April 2015
    First published in:
    1771
  • This slim volume, published anonymously in 1771 within months of the Endeavour's return from Captain Cook's first voyage, predates Hawkesworth's publication of Cook's own journal in his Voyages (1773, also reissued). It has been attributed variously to two of the ship's petty officers (Orton and Perry); Sydney Parkinson, draughtsman; his employer Joseph Banks; or the Swedish botanist Solander. The story moves rapidly, with well-chosen detail: mines that 'destroy two thousand slaves yearly', or the brown granite of a communal laundry. The author describes marine animals, Tahitian and New Zealand society, and foodstuffs including a 'large milky farinaceous fruit, which when baked resembles bread' - the breadfruit that Joseph Banks later decided to introduce to the Caribbean, leading to the ill-fated Bounty voyage (Bligh's account of which is also reissued). The author reports making 'considerable progress in learning the language of the country', and concludes with a short list of Tahitian words.

Relation du voyage de la mer du sud aux cotes du Chily et du Perou, fait pendant les années 1712, 1713 & 1714
  • Amédée-François Frézier
  • Published online:
    05 July 2015
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014
    First published in:
    1716
  • The first reliable maps of the Chilean and Peruvian coasts were drawn by the French explorer Amédée-François Frézier (1682–1773). In 1712, he was sent on a spying mission to the Spanish ports and fortifications of South America, travelling along the Pacific coastline as far as Callao, the port of Lima. His maps were later used by two of France's most famous explorers, Bougainville and Lapérouse. Frézier also took a keen interest in botany, mineralogy, economics and anthropology. His most celebrated achievement is the introduction to Europe of the Chilean strawberry, which was used to create the hybrid species known today as the garden strawberry. Frézier's observations and illustrations of the people, plants and animals he encountered on his South American travels are given in this popular account, published in Paris in 1716 and subsequently translated into several European languages.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 5
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 5 includes accounts and journals describing voyages to the East Indies, and the rivalry between the British and the Dutch in the region.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 4
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 4 includes retrospective accounts and crews' journals describing voyages to the East Indies.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 1
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 1 considers ancient exploration, beginning with the navy of King Solomon, and moving to the classical period, before discussing the world's religions.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 8
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 8 contains narratives of travel through Syria and Persia, including the story of Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 14
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 14 describes voyages to Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia (including a journey of two Cossacks to China), and begins an account of the West Indies.

An Account of a Voyage in Search of La Pérouse
  • Undertaken by Order of the Constituent Assembly of France, and Performed in the Years 1791, 1792, and 1793
  • Volume 1
  • Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    23 October 2014
    First published in:
    1800
  • Following the mysterious disappearance of the La Pérouse expedition after it sailed out of Botany Bay in 1788, the French botanist Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (1755–1834) took part in the search that departed in 1791 from Brest in two ships, Recherche and Espérance. In the space of three years, the expedition's naturalists collected numerous specimens, with Labillardière focusing on Australian flora, but their missing countrymen were never found. Notwithstanding the later confiscation of the scientific collections by the British - Sir Joseph Banks helped to secure their return - Labillardière was able to publish this narrative to great acclaim in 1800. Reissued here is the English translation of the same year, complete with a volume of finely engraved plates. The work is especially notable for its descriptions and illustrations of the indigenous peoples of Australasia. Volume 1 covers the expedition from September 1791 through to January 1793, when it reached Tasmania.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 17
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 17 concentrates on South America, with a voyage through the Straits of Magellan, the conquest of Peru, and historical material on the Incas.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 15
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 15 focuses on the West Indies, Mexico, and 'New Spain', and especially on the narratives of José de Acosta.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 9
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 9 deals with travels throughout the Ottoman empire, including Egypt, and overland journeys to India, together with translations of Arabic books of geography.

An Account of a Voyage in Search of La Pérouse
  • Undertaken by Order of the Constituent Assembly of France, and Performed in the Years 1791, 1792, and 1793
  • Volume 3, Plates
  • Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    23 October 2014
    First published in:
    1800
  • Following the mysterious disappearance of the La Pérouse expedition after it sailed out of Botany Bay in 1788, the French botanist Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (1755–1834) took part in the search that departed in 1791 from Brest in two ships, Recherche and Espérance. In the space of three years, the expedition's naturalists collected numerous specimens, with Labillardière focusing on Australian flora, but their missing countrymen were never found. Notwithstanding the later confiscation of the scientific collections by the British - Sir Joseph Banks helped to secure their return - Labillardière was able to publish this narrative to great acclaim in 1800. Reissued here is the English translation of the same year, complete with a volume of finely engraved plates. The work is especially notable for its descriptions and illustrations of the indigenous peoples of Australasia. This volume of illustrations contains more than forty plates depicting people, artefacts, plants and animals.

Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
  • Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others
  • Volume 3
  • Samuel Purchas
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 3 describes voyages sponsored by the East India Company, including those of David Middleton and the merchant Richard Cocks.

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