COOK (James). Cook's third voyage, or voyage to the Pacific Ocean, ordered by the King of England, to make discoveries in the northern hemisphere, to determine the position and extent of the west coast of North America, its distance from Asia, and to resolve the question of the passage to the north. Paris, Hôtel de Thou [Panckoucke], 1785. 4 volumes in-4, marbled calf, triple fillet, ornate spine, red edges (Binding of the period). First French edition of Cook's last voyage, translated and published by Jean-Nicolas Démeunier. It is illustrated with 88 plates and maps outside the text, most of them folding, and also contains a printed table. The expedition docked in the Kerguelen Islands on Christmas Day 1776, before calling at New Zealand. Sailing then along the American continent, Cook described in his journal the Indian tribes of Vancouver Island, the Alaskan coast, the Aleutian Islands and both shores of the Bering Strait, which he was unable to cross. The following year, the expedition returned to Hawaii to explore the archipelago. It was there that Cook was killed in an altercation with the Hawaiians; Charles Clerke took command of the expedition and sailed to Kamchatka, where he made one last unsuccessful attempt to cross the Bering Strait. Clerke died of phthisis in August 1779 and was succeeded by Lieutenant Gore, who took the return route via the Asian coast, as Cook had planned. The Resolution and Discovery reached Great Britain on 4 October 1780. A very fine copy. Sabin, n°16261.