Histoire d'un voyage aux isles Malouines, fait en 1763 & 1764

A Benedictine scholar and naturalist, Antoine-Joseph Pernety (1716-96) produced this early and invaluable description of the natural history of the Falkland Islands (or isles Malouines). He had arrived there as part of the 1763-4 expedition led by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, claiming the islands for France. A small colony was established, allowing Pernety to provide an account of an ecosystem as yet unaffected by a human population. He spent some months studying the landscape, flora, fauna and climate, and his observations and drawings were published in these two volumes in 1770 (a one-volume English translation of 1771 is also reissued in this series). Additional material from other voyages, to Patagonia and the Straits of Magellan, provides information on contact with indigenous peoples in South America. Volume 1 discusses the inspiration behind the 1763-4 expedition, detailing the journey itself before continuing to an in-depth study of the natural history of the Falklands.