Next message: Robert Gainer: "Re: Sextant precision"
Dear George,
Thank you for your interesting remarks.
The differences you notice between my
Russian book and your English one indicate
that we are discussing translations of two
different books: the extended log and
the book published in 1771.
Your book does not claim to be a translation
of this 1771 book, does it?
I doubt that the Russians translated a pirate edition.
The translators and editors seem to be professional
historians
though they were not experts in navigation. They clearly claim
that the translation was made from the first edition of 1771,
they also say that during Bougainville's life the book
was published several times, second edition in 1772
and several abridged editions. They also say that Bougenville
made corrections and additions in the subsequent editions,
and cite some of these additions in the commentraies.
They reproduce Bougenville's original maps (but not a map of the
vicinity of Magellan strait), and include a long list of experts
who read and corrected the translation.
The experts were in zoology, botany and ethnography, but not
in navigation.
But they included a table of
French measures from which follows that 1 sazhen=6 feet=1.852 m,
and 1 league=1/25 of a degree of meridian=4.445 km.
(I did not notice this table yesterday).
A list of islands discovered by Bougainville
is added. The list was composed by the first Russian
circumnavigator, Captn Krusenstern.
A good map of the region near Magellan strait would be helpful
indeed in understanding Bougainville's way
and observations. All I have is a World atlas.
Alex.
