Charles Marie de La Condamine, 1701-1774, French geographer and mathematician, took part in the expedition sent to Peru in 1735 to determine the length of a degree of the meridian in the neighbourhood of the equator. He had difficulty with his associates, Louis Godin and Pierre Bouguer, from whom he eventually separated and made his way from Quito down the Amazon, thus accomplishing the first scientific exploration of that river. He returned to Paris in 1744, and originally published his results in the Mémoire de l’Académie des Sciences . This is the first published edition of this work and a Spanish edition appeared in the same year. The Lettre a Madame *** forms part of this work and should accompany it, though it is sometimes separately treated by bibliographers.

For other works relative to the same expedition, see no. 4125 and 4126 by the Spaniards Juan y Santacilia and Ulloa, who accompanied the expedition.

A copy of this edition was not seen. Terra Australis Cognita was a translation into English by John Callender, published in Edinburgh in 1766-68, of the Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes by Charles de Brosses, q.v. See the note to Sabin 10053. This 1788 edition contains the voyages of Sir Richard Hawkins, Fernand de Quiros[,] William Schouten, Henry Brewer, William Dampier, Frézier, Ulloa and others.