Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales with Sixty-five Plates of Non descript Animals Birds Lizards Serpents curious Cones of Trees and other Natural Productions.

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

London: Printed for J. Debrett Piccadilly 1790. Quarto bound in contemporary calf-backed rubbed marbled-paper boards with vellum-tipped corners. Morocco titling-label to spine. (18 300 36 4 pp.). With engraved title-page title-vignette and 65 magnificent full-page copper engraved plates. Complete with the List of Subscribers and the 4pp. of advertisements for Debrett's New Publications at the end. The Appendices consist of Natural History illustrations and accompanying scientific descriptions; a record of the Deaths between December 1786 and July 1788; and the 36-page 'A Diary of the Winds Weather Temperature of the Air &c. with the different Latitudes and Longitudes in a Voyage to Port Jackson New South Wales' comprising full-page tables dated May 1787 to January 1788 with the last entry being made on 25 January. Some light foxing.1st edition. John White (circa 1757-1832) was Surgeon-General to the First Fleet and the Settlement at Port Jackson from 1787 to 1794 when he returned to England. A keen amateur naturalist he accompanied Governor Arthur Phillip on two journeys of exploration adding notes and records to the journal which he had begun on his journey south in 1787. The journal together with specimens of the flora fauna and artefacts he had collected on his travels was sent to England to be edited by White's friend Thomas Wilson. Interest in the new colony was so great that in the lead-up to its publication on 29 December 1789 White's book generated 700 subscribers one of whom was the celebrated botanist Sir Joseph Banks. The book proved to be a huge success and in the next few years was translated into French German and Swedish. White's Journal provides one of the earliest accounts of the settlement in New South Wales. Perhaps even more importantly it is also Australia's first book of natural history. NOTE: Whilst there has been a plethora of analysis and discussion by Australian bibliophiles regarding the variant points of Debrett's first edition of White's Journal in so far as coloured versus black/white copies are concerned there can be no question that more coloured copies than the original b/w copies appear on the market. One can only assume that this is the result of subsequent colouring making copies in their as issued b/w state increasingly scarce.