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Rare first Dutch edition of Oxley's expeditions into the interior of New South Wales

OXLEY, John.
Reizen in de binnenlanden van Australie, in de jaren 1817 en 1818, . . . Uit het Engelsch, met platen en kaarten.
Dordrecht, Blussé, Van Braam, 1821. 8vo. With 2 engraved views (1 folding) by J.C. Bendorp and 2 engraved folding maps by C. van Baarsel & son (30.5×62 and 21.5×63 cm). Contemporary sprinkled half sheepskin. XVI, 420 pp.
€ 3,950
First Dutch edition of "the foundation work in the field of Australian inland exploration and the first detailed description of the interior of New South Wales" (Wantrup). It details Oxley's two important expeditions into the inlands of New South Wales, then as little known as the mountains of the moon. John Oxley (1784?-1828) had been Surveyor General in New South Wales since 1811. In March 1817 he was selected to lead an expedition to trace the Lachlan River and to determine whether it entered into sea or into an inland lake; the results were rather disappointing. Tracing the river into impassable marshes, Oxley was compelled to return, arriving back at Bathurt on 29 August 1817. In May 1818 he was sent on a second expedition to investigate the Macquarie River. He discovered Castlereagh River, Liverpool Plains, the Peel River and Hastings River. With bookplate on pastedown. Some browning, the plates with a faint waterstain in upper margin, but otherwise in good condition. The binding scuffed with a small piece of leather near the front hinge gone. Ferguson 835; Saalmink, p. 1470; cf. Wantrup, pp. 180-184; not in Tiele, Bibl.; for the author: Dunlop, "Oxley, John Joseph William Molesworth (1784-1828)", in: ADB (online ed.).
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