Instructions Nautiques sur les Côtes Occidentales d'Amérique, du Golfe de Penas à la Rivière Tumbez

First French Edition, contemporary manuscript dedication from translator on front free endpaper, contemporary annotations through out, contemporary half red calf, spine gilt, 8vo, Paris, Firmin Didot Freres, 1863

A pilot for the west coast of South America, from southern Argentina to Ecuador, with sailing directions covering the Galapagos Islands. The author, Vice-Admiral Robert Fitz-Roy, was a skilled meteorologist and hydrographer, and the Captain of the “Beagle” during Darwin’s famous voyage. During the voyage Darwin and Fitz-Roy were companions, with a shared scientific interest. This friendship ended when Darwin published The Origin of Species. Fitz-Roy was dismayed and apparently felt guilty for his part in the theory’s development. It is unclear when his pilot was first published in English, but it probably resulted from the “Beagle’s” voyage up the coast in 1827.

The translator, Amedee Joseph Mac-Dermott was a frigate captain. The translator signed this work to “Monsieur de Lapelin, Captain de Vailleau”

This scarce and important work served as a major reference point for 19th-century Chilean explorers of western Patagonia.