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La Condamine, Charles Marie de.
Relation abrégée d'un Voyage fait dans l'interieur de l'Amérique méridionale. Depuis la Côte de la Mer du Sud, jusqu'aux Côtes du Brésil & de la Guiane, en descendant la Rivière des Amazones.
Publisher: Chez la Veuve Pissot, Quay de Conti, à la Croix d’Or, Paris;
Date of Publication: 1745
Stock Code: 15008
First edition. Octavo, pp., [4] preliminaries, xvi, 216, [4]; sig., [pi]⁴ a⁸ A-N⁸ O⁴. Engraved folding map of the Amazon river by G. N. Delahaye to end. Collated and complete. Contemporary speckled calf, spine on four bands, titled in gilt to black leather spine label, gilt ornamentation to compartments; all edges sprinkled red. Small gouge to head of spine, some rubbing to boards, corners bumped. Internally clean. A very good copy in a contemporary binding. The first edition of the first account of the first scientific expedition through the Amazon. In 1735, French explorer Charles Marie de La Condamine (1701-74) embarked on a voyage to South America to test Newton’s hypothesis that the Earth bulged at the Equator. La Condamine sailed through Martinique, Saint-Domingue, Cartagena, and Panama to arrive at the Pacific coast of what is now Ecuador. On the expedition, La Condamine proved Newton’s hypothesis, became the first European to encounter rubber, and sent early samples of the cinocha tree (which produces quinine), sarsparilla, cacao, and vanilla to France. Completing his work in 1743, La Condamine returned via the dangerous Amazon river, in doing so becoming the first scientist to explore it. This volume published La Condamine’s extensive notes and observation for the first time, which include the first description by a European of the Casiquiare River, the curare arrow poison used by indigenous people, and the potential use for quinine as a treatment for malaria. £500.00