GARNIER (Francis). Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine effectué pendant les années 1866, 1867 et 1868 par une commission française présidée par M. le capitaine de frégate Doudart de Lagrée. Paris : Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1873. - 2 volumes of in-folio text, 335 x 255, and two atlases bound in one large in-folio volume, 493 x 368: portrait, (2 ff.), V pp., (1 f.), 580 pp. 9 maps, 1 plan; (3 ff.), 523 pp. 2 maps; Atlas: 4 ff. first blank), 22 plates; XII pp. 40 plates. Red half-chagrin, ornate spine, gilt edges (period binding). First edition, very rare with all volumes dated 1873, profusely illustrated. This is the report of the Mekong exploration mission led by Commander Ernest Doudart de Lagrée (1823-1868), with Lieutenant Francis Garnier (1839-1873) as second-in-command. They were accompanied by geologist Lucien Joubert, marine surgeon 2nd class, botanist Clovis Thorel, marine surgeon 3rd class, draughtsman Louis Delaporte and Louis de Carné fils, student consul and agent for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Published by Francis Garnier, the book is a collective work by Garnier and several members of the expedition. A naval officer and visionary explorer, Francis Garnier trained at the École navale before serving in the South Seas (1857-1858), then taking part in the China Expedition (1860) under Admiral Charner, where he distinguished himself and was promoted to ensign. He then accompanied Charner to Cochinchina (1861), then, after a brief return to France, returned to Indochina as Inspector of Indigenous Affairs (1863) and then Administrator of Cholon (1865), earning the rank of Lieutenant. His writings on colonization convinced the Minister of the Navy and Napoleon III to launch a mission to explore the Mekong to assess its potential as a route to China. In 1866, he set out as second-in-command to Captain Doudart de Lagrée, crossing Cambodia, Laos and reaching Chinese Yunnan by exploring the upper reaches of the Song River (1866-1868). On Lagrée's death, Garnier took charge of the expedition, reaching the Yangtze, making an excursion to Tibet, then descending the river to Shanghai (1868). On his return to France, Garnier was acclaimed by the Paris and London Geographical Societies and edited his account, Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine (published in 1873), while working at the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine. During the 1870 war, he served under Admirals Jurien de La Gravière and Méquet, but his stance against the surrender of the forts earned him a temporary disgrace. He then returned to China (1872-1873) as a correspondent for the newspaper Le Temps, where he founded a silk trading company in Shanghai. Recalled by Admiral Dupré for his strategic knowledge of Tonkin and the Song River, he was sent to Hanoi in 1873 to support trafficker Jean Dupuis and impose the French presence there. After unsuccessful negotiations with the Annamites, he captured the Hanoi citadel in November 1873, but was killed a month later, in December, in a reckless attack on the Black Flags. For this book, Francis Garnier wrote most of the account of the voyage, as well as the geographical (in collaboration with Louis Delaporte), astronomical, meteorological, historical, ethnographic, linguistic and political studies, drawing in part on Ernest Doudart de Lagrée's notes, notably for the descriptions of the Angkor temple and the local languages. Lucien Joubert, a physician, dealt with geological and mineralogical issues, including a French translation of a Chinese treatise on Yunnan, while Dr. Clovis Thorel addressed anthropology, agriculture and horticulture. The maps and plans were based on surveys by Francis Garnier, Ernest Doudart de Lagrée, Louis Delaporte and Jean-Baptiste Laëderich (for the Angkor temple). Finally, the illustrations - both in-text and out-of-text - were lithographed from drawings by Louis Delaporte.{The text volumes open with a woodcut portrait-frontispiece of Captain Doudart de Lagrée, and include 1 plan and 11 off-text lithographed maps.