Cook & Forster's Voyage around the World (1777)

Cook, James & Forster, George, a voyage round the world Performed in his Britannic Majesty's ships the Resolution and adventure, in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775....Illustrated with a chart of the Southern Hemisphere...[Dublin, W.Whitestone, S.Watson, R. Cross, J. Potts &&., Dublin, 1777] four volumes XVIII, xxx,372pp. 6, 392pp. 2 492pp. 2 518pp. Large folding map of Southern Hemisphere, six engraved plates, folding table. Contemporary calf with later title labels. A fine complete set of this important Irish edition., the chart is a highly detailed, large-format map of the Southern Hemisphere, showing the tracks of the major voyages of exploration in the Southern Hemisphere from 1595 to 1775. The map highlights Cook's explorations to prove the non-existence of a vast southern continent on his second voyage. The polar projection radiates around the south pole, which does not feature a land mass at its centre. It does, however, feature numerous notes mountains and islands of ice., the first sighting of the Antarctic mainland would come only in 1820, with no confirmation of the extent of the continent until the later nineteenth century. Cook, however, was able to circumnavigate the continent and prove that it was not the massive supercontinent long believed to be in the south of the world. The map includes the coastlines of New Holland, New Zealand, parts of Southeast Asia, Africa and south America. Surrounding the circular projection are tables of latitude and longitude of southern Pacific islands, most of which were discovered on Cook's first (1768-1771) or second voyage (1772-1775).