“This is not meant as a work of elocution, or literary composition, but a collection of instructing facts” says the author in his preface to this work. Dalrymple first became interested in exploration and discovery when working for the East India Company in Madras, considering possibilities for expanding commerce. He explains that he developed a passionate interest in Pacific exploration, and that in order not to replicate earlier voyages, he collected accounts of previous discoveries. This work is the result. In later life he was appointed hydrographer to the Company and afterwards to the Admiralty, being the first to hold the latter post.

This copy formed part of King George III’s Windsor Library.