Hawks, Francis L. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, (3 volume set) performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the Command of Commodore M. C. Perry, United States Navy. Washington: A. O. P. Nicholson, Printer, 1856. First Edition. [9314]
Three volume set, worn and faded bindings, shaken, some fraying at the edges, 30 x 25.5 cms (12 x 10 inches), light foxing. Lacking only one plate, this set has very good lithographed plates with some foxing. Full details of each volume below. Good. Hardcover.
"Compiled from the Original Notes and Journals of Commodore Perry and his Officers, at his Request, and under his Supervision."
Vol. I. - This volume contains the narrative of the expedition. Front end paper hinge torn making the board wobbly; xvii., [1 errata], 537 pp., Plate "Fish Market, Canton" missing; 88 of 89 lithographed plates, many in color, two in brilliant colors reproducing Japanese artwork. 3 additional map plates and one folding sea chart of the journey. Shaken, with one detached plate.
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Vol. II. - This volume contains numerous reports by various authors, on explorations, botany, geography agriculture, &c., of Japan, China, and several island groups. End paper hinges wobbly, shaken. [viii], 415, XI, plus plates & charts. 37 plates, including 6 birds plates & 10 fish plates in brilliant colors. Includes a facsimile printing of the Japanese treaty in both Japanese and English. There are 14 large folded sea charts at the end of the book, some a bit tattered at the edges.
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Vol. III. - Observations on the Zodiacal Light, from April 2, 1853, to April 22, 1855, made chiefly aboard The United States Steam-Frigate Mississippi, during her late Cruise in Eastern Seas, and her Voyage Homeward: with Conclusions from the Data thus obtained. By Rev. George Jones, A.M., Chaplain United States Navy. This volume remains tight. Bumped at the top right corner, including the page corners. 43 pp. of introduction followed by 352 full-page wood engravings of astronomical observations with letterpress descriptions; 765 pages in all.
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"Matthew C. Perry's mission to Japan in 1852-54 may have been America's greatest diplomatic triumph of the 19th century. Perry succeeded not only in his primary mission of obtaining a treaty with the previously isolationist Empire of Japan (the Treaty of Kanegawa), which included Japanese agreement to care for shipwrecked sailors and establish coaling stations for American ships, but he also opened the door for a future U.S.-Japan trade relationship.
"The chronicler of that voyage was Francis L. Hawks, who wrote a detailed but quite readable narrative of the voyage based on Perry's journal as well as 'the journals of his secretary and other officers, the diaries of the fleet captain and flag-lieutenants, the official reports . . . and the public documents.' Published in 1856 by the U.S. government in three lengthy volumes, along with a portfolio of charts, it was a best seller in its time.
"The first volume chronicled the mission from the departure of the steam frigate Mississippi from Norfolk in November 1852 to its return to Brooklyn in April 1855. The second included reports on the agriculture, geography, topography, mineral deposits, and natural history of not just Japan but also the regions visited en route. The third presented hundreds of star charts for the benefit of future Pacific navigators. There is little modern interest in either of the last two volumes, but Hawks' narrative in Volume I is as engaging today as it was to 19th-century readers." - Craig L. Symonds, Naval History (April 2006).
Francis Lister Hawks (1798-1866), b. New Bern, NC; d. NYC. Hawks was a Protestant Episcopal priest, teacher, editor, historian - a man full of energy who led a life full of accomplishments. After studying law he was admitted to the bar in North Carolina, and from 1820-26 was reporter for the North Carolina Supreme Court. He was an active Mason and delivered addresses on important occasions. He was rector of several churches in Connecticut and New York before becoming professor of General Theological Seminary (1833-35), and was appointed historiographer of his denomination in 1836. His ministry in New York City included the founding of a girls' school, as rector of the Church of the Mediator, and as founder of the Church Journal. He was a prodigious writer and editor: "His prolific writings for children as well as adults on varied religious and secular topics ranged from church histories, a two-volume history of North Carolina, and a book on the English language to works about Egyptian monuments, Peruvian antiquities, and the papers of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and Alexander Hamilton. For some time he was an editor of Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Biography." - Gertrude S. Carraway, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.
