158 Scientific expeditions

The three journeys by James Cook (1728-1779) to the Pacific from 1768 were intended in part as research trips; the first two were in fact instigated by the Royal Society. The second one included the future ‘German Jacobin’ Georg Forster as a draughtsman. The third was a quest for the notorious Northwest Passage. Cook’s renowned travel reports also mention for the first time an affiliation between the Malay-Polynesian languages, spoken by people living thousands of kilometres apart.

Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, undertaken by the command of his majesty, for making discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere...

Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, undertaken by the command of his majesty, for making discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere to determine the position and extent of the west side of North America; its distance from Asia; and the practicability of a northern passage to Europe, performed under the direction of Captains Cook, Clerke and Gore, in the years 1776-80
J. Cook and L. King
London: W. & A. Strahan, 1784
Book, 3 vols, 42 x 28

Date: 
1784
Catalog record: 
AB F 1570
Number: 
158

Comments

Georg Forster

Submitted by kro on Tue, 2011-11-01 13:07.

Georg Forster (and not his father, as the title page of the work in question claims) is supposed to be the translator of the English edition (1772) of the travel account by Bougainville mentioned in the previous item. Forster himself published in 1777 an account of his journey with Captain Cook. The scientific quality of this account set the standard for later times and influenced Alexander von Humboldt. Later work by Forster (1754-1794), in France nick-named le Jacobin de Mayence, was one of Hegel’s sources of inspiration.