LA PÉROUSE (Jean-François Galaup de). Voyage autour du monde, published in accordance with the decree of 22 April 1791, and written by M. L.-A. Milet-Mureau. Paris, Imprimerie de la République, 1797. 4 volumes in-4 of text and a large atlas in-folio, green speckled calf, gilt lace, smooth spine decorated with a repeated ship's iron, speckled edges (period binding). First edition of "one of the best accounts of maritime exploration ever written" (McDonnell). This famous account features a frontispiece with a portrait of La Pérouse engraved by Tardieu and is accompanied by a majestic folio atlas containing a title-frontispiece by Moreau engraved by Trière and 69 plates, including a large fold-out world map, 20 double-page maps, 10 full-page maps and 38 plates of views, coastal surveys, natural history, scenes of customs, costumes and native types, all engraved in intaglio by Le Pagelet, Thomas, Godefroy, Choffard, Avril, Legrand, etc., based on drawings by Duché de Vancy, Blondela, Prévost, La Martinière and others. The French government, wishing to complete the work of Cook and Clarke, decided to send an expedition to search for a passage to the north-west of America. Louis XVI drew up the voyage plan himself and entrusted the mission to La Pérouse. Leaving Brest in 1785, he visited Chile, Easter Island, the Sandwich Islands, Hawaii, Alaska, California, Macao, Manila, the China and Japanese seas, the Tonga Islands and Australia. The two corvettes of this expedition, La Boussole and L'Astrolabe, disappeared at sea, while La Pérouse's last letter, written from Botany-Bay, dated 7 February 1788. It was in this town that the expedition had taken refuge after thirteen members of the crew had been massacred by Indians on the island of Maouna. The wrecks were not found until 1827 in the Santa Cruz archipelago. This official account of the expedition was published by L.-A. de Milet de Mureau on the basis of documents that Lesseps, the expedition's interpreter and historiographer, brought back in 1787, shortly before the tragedy. "La Pérouse reveals himself not only as an excellent sailor, but also as a shrewd mind, curious about all the sciences of his time, animated by liberal and generous ideas that make him the most accomplished type of navigator of the Enlightenment" (É. Taillemite). A copy with good margins, internally very fresh. Text volumes: spines rubbed and uniformly faded, headpieces and corners restored. Atlas washed in imitation binding. Ferguson, n°251 - Hill, n°972 - Chadenat, n°106 - Sabin, n°38960 - Borba de Moraes, I, 449 - McDonnell, n°213 - En français dans le texte, n°199.