Exploration

James Mario Matra – Alan Frost

His precarious life magnificently presented by Alan Frost and The Miegunyah Press. A fine edition 1995 first. Large octavo, 264 pages printed on Pageantry text cream paper and limited to 1,000 copies.

Matra sailed with Cook on his first voyage on the Endeavour and famously published the account of that voyage anonymously before the official account. He lost his inheritance in the American war of Independence but was helped out by Joseph Banks. He had grand plans of his own for NSW which did not come to fruition .. he saw out his later years as Consul at Tangier.

Matra the first to report Cook’s Voyage

$60.00

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The Great Frozen North – Jackson – First Edition 1895

The Great Frozen North (Bolshaia Zemelskija Tundra); Narrative of a Winter Journey Across the Tundras and a Sojourn Among the Samoyads.

Edited by Arthur Montefiore from the journals of Frederick George Jackson (1860 – 1938).

Published by Macmillan, London a first edition 1895 in very good condition. Large octavo, 297 pages after preliminaries numerous illustrations from photographs and drawings with three foldout coloured maps showing the route taken. Original blue cloth binding with the lovely gilt deer to front.

In the autumn 1893 Jackson explored Vatgack Island spending a year among the Samoyeds gaining sledging experience with reindeer. He then sledged 3,000 miles along the Arctic coast from Vaygach to the Pachora River and on to Ust Tsilma then west to the Menzen working his way up the coast of the White Sea north to Varanger Fiord. All of which was in preparation for his planned expedition through Franz Josef land the following year sponsored by the RGS. This book has become a fundamental reference to the way of life of the native Samoyed people.

Incidentally, during his later Franz Josef expedition Jackson came across Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen who had been lost for three years and had been trying to get to Spitsbergen and assisted them in a safe journey home aboard the Windward. Jackson received a knighthood of the first class of the Norwegian Royal Order of St Olaf for saving their exploration hero.

Jackson went on to have a distinguished military career rising to the rank of Major. As a youth he spent time in Queensland on a cattle station. In his last year he lived on a houseboat on the Thames. Quite a character.

$260.00

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The Journal of Philip Gidley King: Lieutenant RN 1787-1790

Published by Australian Documents Library, Sydney 1980. Hard cover in good condition with good dust jacket. Quarto 401pages with 17 black and white plates.

The first publication of the private journal purchased by the Mitchell Library from the King family in 1933. The journal of his time at Norfolk Island and New Zealand has an immediacy lacking other accounts

Philip Gidley King – First Hand

$70.00

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Papuan Epic – Keith Bushell – 1930

Keith Bushell was a Patrol Officer and Magistrate in New Guinea. His book is an extremely personal account at times drifting to dialogue, Skirmished and cannibalism abound as does “white savagery”.

The battles of Pai-Wa and Ebadidi are recorded. The questionable taming of the sorcerer “Donovan”. Nicely illustrated as usual for New Guinea items.

Bushell – Kiap Recollections

$70.00

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The Black Musketeers – Marshall – 1937

First edition 1937 The New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and one of the most readable Pacific Island accounts because of the skill and humour of the author Jock Marshall. From the Oxford University Exploring Committee. The introduction by his colleague Tom Harrison sets the scene better than many.

The musketeers use guns taken there in the 19th century by sandalwood and slave trader … they still work.

Well illustrated … Interesting story behind the “red flag”.

Marshall among the Musketeers of Vanuatu

$60.00

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Tuckey’s Voyage (to Port Philip) – an abridgement 1805

An abridgement of the 239 pages “An account of a Voyage to establish a Colony at Port Philip, in Bass’s Strait, on the south coast of New South Wales, in his majesty’s ship Calcutta, in the years 1802-3-4, by J. H. Tuckey Esq First Lieutenant of the Calcutta” – Longman & Co, London.

20 pages in simple blue sugar paper wrappers. Refer Ferguson bibliography of Australia, 410 and copy in the National Library Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK1729.

Much of the twenty pages is taken up by the voyage out but the arrival at Port Philip and the difficulties and hostilities encountered with the local aboriginal group are written up in detail and give a good understanding as to why the site was abandoned for the Derwent.

Rare abridgement and early Port Philip

$40.00

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James Mario Matra – Alan Frost

The Great Frozen North – Jackson – First Edition 1895

The Journal of Philip Gidley King: Lieutenant RN 1787-1790

Papuan Epic – Keith Bushell – 1930

The Black Musketeers – Marshall – 1937

Tuckey’s Voyage (to Port Philip) – an abridgement 1805

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