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Description

Early Charting of the Coast of California -- San Francisco and Monterrey Bay

Nice example of the first English edition of La Perouse's chart of the Northwest Coast of America from Monterey and San Francisco Bay to Tillamook Head, Oregon.

This is one of the earliest printed maps to show San Francisco Bay.

La Perouse left Brest in 1785 with two vessels to explore the Northwest Coast of America. He arrived there the following summer and explored extensively along the Alaska coast, then sailed south to California. The expedition's goals were to explore the potential for fur trading ventures, pursue the geographical exploration of both America and Siberia, investigate the possibility of a Northwest passage and establish some French claim between the claims of Russia and Spain along the American coast.

After his stop in California, La Pérouse visited China, some Pacific islands and the Siberian coast. He sent back copies of his journals both overland across Russia and via British ships met at Botany Bay in the spring of 1788. After he left Australia, his party was never seen again and it was not until the 1820s that the wrecks of his ships were discovered on a reef in the Santa Cruz group. When it became clear that something had happened to the expedition, a decision was made to publish the journals he had transmitted home.

The La Perouse voyage provided a superb mapping of the Oregon and California coasts.

Reference
cf Wagner, H. (NW) #845 (French edition); Phillips, P.L. (Atlases) 693.