EDEN, William (traditional misattribution). THE HISTORY OF NEW HOLLAND, from its First Discovery in 1616, to the Present Time.

EDEN, William (traditional misattribution). THE HISTORY OF NEW HOLLAND, from its First Discovery in 1616, to the Present Time. With a Particular Account of its Produce and Inhabitants; and a Description of Botany Bay: also, A List of the Naval, Marine, Military, and Civil Establishment. To which is prefixed, An Introductory Discourse on Banishment, by the Right Honourable William Eden. Octavo, with two folding maps handcoloured in outline (neat strengthening on verso of two folds), an appealing copy in tree calf of the period, sympathetically rebacked retaining the original spine label. London, Printed for John Stockdale, 1787. First edition. This important First Fleet book, one of the earliest descriptions of Australia, was written when the expedition to settle New Holland was first proposed publicly in 1786-7. The prominent Picadilly bookseller and publisher, John Stockdale, published the work aiming “to present at one view a connected description of the whole country of New Holland” to a public anxious for information on Botany Bay and the proposed thief colony there. The preface and text discuss the transportation of offenders, with an “Introductory Discourse on Banishment” by William Eden, to whom authorship of the whole book was for a long time attributed. Details of the fleet that was preparing to depart are given as well as a comprehensive account of what was known of the east coast of New Holland. The two fine handcoloured maps are highly regarded and show the entire continent as then known, with an inset map of Botany Bay, and a large folding world map with the “passage from England to Botany Bay in New Holland 1787” showing the route the First Fleet would take. Stockdale was exceptionally well-connected in official circles and this and other works that he published in 1786-7 relating to the proposed Botany Bay experiment were almost certainly prepared with official approval. These livres de circonstance, as Eris O’Brien called them, were essentially part of a publicity campaign by the pro-Botany-Bay lobby within Whitehall circles. Beddie, 27; Davidson, pp. 79–81 (“an extremely interesting work and an essential inclusion in all comprehensive collections”); Ferguson, 24; Holmes, 66.