Item #021046 Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819, 20, 21, and 22. Captain John Franklin.
Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819, 20, 21, and 22.
Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819, 20, 21, and 22.

Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819, 20, 21, and 22.

London: John Murray, 1823. First Edition. Thick Quarto. Item #021046

First issue with the errata slip mounted to page 768. xvi, 768, Illustrated with 31 plates of which 11 are in color (9 in aquatint) and with four plates of plants (1 in color) preceding four large folding maps all dated March 1823, with an appendix which Sabin calls "valuable" in its contribution to the knowledge of the natural history of the area. Light off-setting or scattered foxing from plates facing text, small damp stain to upper margin of title page. Bound in full contemporary calf, board edges ruled in gilt and blind, rebacked to style retaining original endpapers and beautifully executed, raised bands gilt, black morocco spine label gilt, all edges marbled with matching endpapers. Minor wear to corners. this book narrates the disastrous expedition undertaken by Naval officer and Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin in the Coppermine River in North America. Franklin (1786-1847) and nineteen others set out in 1819, initially with guides from the Hudson Bay Company until the journey continued overland, when they relied on Native Americans as guides. The party ran short of supplies and lacking adequate knowledge for survival, were reduced to eating lichens. One of the party was suspected of eating the bodies of the nine men who had died of exposure and starvation, and two more were killed in a subsequent skirmish. Franklin undertook a second, more successful Arctic journey before setting out on his final expedition of 1845, which ended in tragedy and enduring mystery. (Cambridge) This volume came from the library of John Keate D.D. (1773 - March 5, 1852) who was an English schoolmaster. He was educated at Eton and Kings College, Cambridge, where he had a brilliant career as a scholar; taking holy orders, he became an assistant master at Eton College and in 1809 he was elected headmaster. The discipline of the school was very unsatisfactory to Dr Keate who took stern measures to improve it. His partiality for the birch became a by-word, but he succeeded in restoring order and strengthening the weakened authority of the masters. Keate was made a canon of Windsor in 1820. He died at Hartley Westpall, Hampshire, of which parish he had been rector since 1824. Also from the library of Mary Patterson Davidson with her bookplate. Franklin's narrative includes descriptions of the country the native Indians, the murder of Robert Hood, and his great disappointment in failing to find a northwest passage.

Price: $1,875.00

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