The first French account of Roggeveen's voyage and the European discovery of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). 'One of the last of the great Dutch circumnavigations' (Howgego), the expedition led by Jakob Roggeveen (1659-1729) was sent by the Dutch West India Company in 1721 to search for the Terra Australis. He stopped at the Falkland Islands, when he named 'Belgia Australis', before passing through the Straits and making for Valdivia in Chile. After landing at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and losing one of his three ships, Roggeveen made for Batavia where he was arrested and his ships confiscated by the rival Dutch East India Company. Having been held in prison for six months Roggeveen pusued the VOC through the Dutch courts and was eventually compensated for his losses.

The first account of the expedition, the present work was published in German in 1737 by Carl Friedrich Behrens (1701-1750), a commander of marines on the voyage and the first European to set foot on Rapa Nui, named Easter Island by the Europeans as they arrived there on Easter Sunday 1722. The French translation is most often attributed to the author.

First French edition. 2 vols, small 8vo, [12], 224; [4], 254, [2] (blank)pp.; titles in red and black, half-titles, occasional woodcut ornament; small marginal water-stain in vol. II, neat repair to lower corner of vol. II, Q7; contemporary continental (? Dutch) calf, spines gilt in compartments, gilt red morocco lettering-pieces, edges speckled red, marbled endpapers, ribbon page-markers; a little rubbed, some chipping to joints, to spine and lower board of vol. I, otherwise a very good copy.

Howgego, R63.