4to (288 x 220 mm). Engraved folding map. (Slight offsetting on frontispiece map, very minor soiling to a few leaves.) Contemporary calf gilt (rebacked preserving original spine). Provenance: Earl of Roden (armorial bookplate, shelf label); collector's bookplate, a few pencil marks.

FIRST EDITION, A WIDE-MARGINED COPY. "Even if Dobbs used exaggeration as his main literary device, the core of his sermon was perfectly accurate -- that if the Company did not drastically alter its tactics, the French would occupy the new continent's central plains... Its most valuable historical contribution was the description of the extraordinary exploits of a 'French Canadese Indian' named Joseph La France" (Peter C. Newman, Empire of the Sun, 2000, p. 213). Dobbs never saw the bay but derived considerable information from French and Canadian sources, notably La France. Dobbs gives accounts of the fur trade and of early exploration of the area and the opportunities for further discoveries. He attacks Captain Christopher Middleton for his leadership of the 1741-1742 expedition searching for a passage, initiating a public attack and counter-attack that lasted more than 3 years. In 1745, Parliament announced a reward of 20,000 pounds to the discoverer of the passage; Dobbs financed a second expedition, 1746-7, in the Dobbs and California to search for the route via Hudson's Bay. Field 433; Howes D-373; Lande 1144; NMM 796; Peel 8; Sabin 20404; Staton & Tremaine/TPL 193; Streeter Sale VI:3637; Wagner Northwest Coast 549.