Author: VOYAGE DE ROBERTSON.
Title: Voyage de Robertson, aux terres australes, traduit sur le manuscrit anglois.
Description: A Amsterdam, 1767. 12mo. [iv], 474 pp. Full calf, morocco title piece. (binding sligthly rubbed, ex-libris removed from pastedown, fly leaf a bit damaged, 2 pp.spotted) ¶This work, simply signed 'Robertson' is sometimes attributed to Louise Sébastien-Mercier, who published in 1772 a utopian novel set in the year 2440. The anonymous author claims to have sailed to South America with Francis Drake and, when in the Pacific, to have stranded on an unknown (Australian) island, where he finds an ideal society. Description of this society and his description of European society to the islanders, give ample scope for philosophical criticism. At the end the author returns to England, and inspires William Penn (pp.432-452) to found an ideal settlement in North America. See extensive descripition in v.Wijngaarden, 'Les Odyssées philosophiques en France entre 1616 et 1789', pp.216-225; Gove pp.355-356; for the Mercier-connection Barbier, t.IV, p.1079. - Second issue of the first edition, published in 1766 (same fingerprint). Another edition was also published in 1767.

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