A voyage round the world, in the years 1803, 4, 5, & 6; performed, by order of His Imperial Majesty Alexander the First, emperor of Russia, in the ship Neva.

London : John Booth … and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme &​ Brown, 1814. First edition in English. Quarto (285 x 220 mm), modern half calf, spine in compartments with raised bands and gilt rule, contrasting morocco title label lettered in gilt, marbled boards; speckled edges; preliminaries (2 blanks, frontispiece portrait of Lisianskii); xxi; [blank]; [ii], 388, illustrated with 5 plates (2 aquatint views) and 8 coloured maps (3 folding); light foxing and offsetting, a fine copy of a rare work, which is often found incomplete.

Important narrative of the first Russian circumnavigation under Krusenstern, written by the expedition’s deputy commander Lisianskii and first published in St. Petersburg in 1812. The expedition reached Hawaii in mid 1804. “The Neva arrived at Hawaii June 8 and departed June 20 … and Lisianskii’s account is brief but includes visits to Kealakekua Bay and to Waimea, Kauai.” (Forbes). Lisianskii then provides a detailed account of the expedition’s activities at Kodiak and Sitka in Alaska in 1804-05, including his subjugation of the Kolosh Indians who had destroyed the settlement of the Russian-American Company at Sitka. Appendix 3 comprises a Vocabulary of the Languages of the Islands of Cadiack and Oonalaschca. The two fine aquatint views of Harbour of St. Paul in the Island of Cadiack and Harbour of New Archangel in Sitca of Norfolk Sound are after Lisianskii’s own drawings. As well as a world map, the work contains coloured charts of several locations along the coast of Alaska, including Sitka and Kodiak. In her comments on the first edition, Lada-Mocarski describes Lisianskii’s work as “a very important and rare work on the history of Alaska in general and Sitka in particular.”

A voyage round the world also contains Lisianskii’s descriptions of the Marquesas and Canton, where the expedition remained for two months. The scarce first English edition of Lisianskii’s narrative constitutes a valuable alternative account to that of Krusenstern, from which it differs markedly.

Hill 1026; Kroepelien 740; Sabin 41416; Forbes 443; Lada-Mocarski 68 (1812 edition); O’Reilly-Reitman 739