Pennant’ Outlines of the Globe, vol. 4: The view of the Malayan Isles, New Holland, and the Spicy Islands.

The rare fourth volume of Pennant’s Outlines of the globe containing the large map of Australia, titled: Map For Mr. Pennants Outline of the Globe.

Beautifully bound in striking contemporary hand painted tree calf,  with extensive gilt Greek key border to both the front and rear cover and with raised bands with gilt lettering.

Pennant’s had ambitiously planned to publish some twenty-two volumes of ‘Outlines of the Globe‘ which were never fully published and only exist in manuscript form in the collection of the Royal Museum Greenwich (ID: P/16). Only four of the volumes were published, two by himself, and two by his son, David Pennant. As for the rest, they remained in the custody of the inheritors of the Downing property, the Feilding family, till 1938, when they were sold with many other books and manuscripts which belonged to Thomas Pennant and his son, by Christie’s, instructed by the executors of the late viscount Feilding, lord Denbigh, for £300, the purchasers being Maggs Brothers, booksellers, London. The twenty-two volumes of the Outlines are now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

In his Literary Life (1793), Pennant wrote that he ‘grew fond of imaginary tours’ in old age, and compiled these volumes from accounts in ‘books ancient and modern’, and from ‘living travellers of the most respectable characters’ – though some of the material is based on places Pennant visited himself, in particular the British tours. The volumes are lavishly illustrated with inserted prints, charts, and maps, and decorated with original artwork by (amongst others) Pennant’s long time artist Moses Griffith (1747–1819).

This fourth volume of Outlines, includes a short history of Australia and Norfolk Island, taken from contemporary sources such as Dampier, Cook, Parkinson and Phillips. Hill contends that ‘ first two volumes in this set though they are highly regarded, are not rare however, the third and fourth volumes are quite scarce’.

The large map of Australia  is one of the earliest to note the possible existence of Bass Strait. The recent discovery of the strait between mainland Australia and Van Diemen’ Land by Matthew Flinders and George Bass in the Norfolk in October 1798, is indicated by a dotted line and a notation stating ‘ New discov’. Straits’. Flinders’ chart, which showed Bass Strait, was first issued by Aaron Arrowsmith on 16 June 1800 in Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’ Land, on Bass’ Strait and its Islands. The probable existence of the strait was first suggested following reports from the survivors of the Sydney Cove which had been wrecked in February 1797 on Preservation Island, off Tasmania. When the master of the ship arrived in Sydney, he reported conditions around Van Diemen’ Land which suggested the presence of a channel between the mainland and Van Diemen’ Land. In response, Governor John Hunter wrote to Joseph Banks in August 1797, expressing his belief in a strait and George Bass was subsequently sent to explore the coast in a whaleboat. After reaching Wilsons Promontory and Western Port in January 1798, bad weather and a lack of provisions forced Bass to return to Sydney, but not before he had observed the long south-westerly swell and rapid tide which confirmed his own belief in the strait. Numerous other discoveries are noted including one on the northwest coast near present-day Port Hedland named ‘ Passage in the Opinion of Dampier’ and another recording the visit by George Vancouver to King George Sound in 1791.