Berlin, Voss, 1791. 8vo (22.4 x 14.5 cm). xxviii, 302 [303-544] pp.; two engraved, folded maps, one folded table. Original blind boards.

First German edition, with new and useful remarks by Johann Reinhold Forster, who travelled with Captain Cook in the same region. Jean-Baptiste Barthélemy de Lesseps (1766-1834; uncle of Ferdinand) participated in La Pérouse's famous expedition: "...Lapérouse then sailed north and reached Petropavlovsk on the Russian Kamchatka peninsula on 7 September 1787. Here they rested from their trip, and enjoyed the hospitality of the Russians and Kamchatkans. In letters received from Paris, Lapérouse was ordered to investigate the settlement the British were establishing in New South Wales, Australia. Barthélemy de Lesseps, the French vice consul at Kronstadt, Russia, who had joined the expedition as an interpreter, disembarked in Petropavlovsk to bring the expedition's ships' logs, charts, and letters to France, which he reached after a year-long, epic journey across Siberia and Russia" (Wikipedia). The folded table contains a list a words in German, Russian, Korean, Kamchatkan and two other local languages. This is volume four of the Magazin von merkwürdigen neuen Reisebeschreibungen, aus fremden Sprachen übersetzt und mit erläuternden anmerkungen begleitet. In the rear is bound, Des Grafen von Ferrieres-Sauveboeuf Reisen un der Türkei, Persien und Arabien während der Jahre 1782 bis 1789. Mit Bemerkungen über die Religion, die Sitten, den Charakter und den Handel der Bewohner von diesen drei Länderen, with separate title page but continuous page numbering, 305-544. The French spy Louis-François de Ferrières-Sauveboeuf (born 1762) travelled the Middle East and was murdered in 1814. Uncut, with wide margins. A note in an old hand on the front free endpaper recto; signed "Grothe" or "Goethe"(?) on the title page. The two maps in an excellent condition. Rare, especially in this fine state, and with an interesting provenance. Henze III, p. 223.