288

Jonathan Carver

Travels through the Interior Parts of North America.

London, 1778
2 folding maps, 4 engraved plates. 8vo, later ½ calf, minor wear, rebacked; minor foxing and offsetting; leaf of related manuscript laid down on front flyleaf.

  • Notes:
    First edition. "Carver penetrated farther into the West than any other English explorer before the Revolution" and "stimulated curiosity concerning routes to the Pacific, later satisfied by Mackenzie and Lewis and Clark"--Howes C215 ("aa"). The book records his travels as far west as modern-day Minnesota and Wisconsin from 1766 to 1768, and also describes his injuries and capture by the French and Indians at Fort William Henry in 1757. In this book, Carver was also the first to use the word "Oregon" in print.

    Particularly rich in Indian lore and the methods of Indian warfare"--Lande 108 (re second edition). "One of the most popular of all travel books. . . . The descriptions received the praise of the poet Coleridge"--Hubach, page 24. Pilling, Algonquin 58; Sabin 11184; Streeter sale III:1772; Vail 654; Wheat, Transmississippi West 175 and page I:140.

    Laid down on the flyleaf is a fragment of the manuscript for Calvin Colton's 1833 book, "Tour of the American Lakes, and Among the Indians of the North-West Territory," published as page IV:104. The passage begins: "The original principles asserted and the practice pursued by those European powers, who first laid their claims and their hands upon the American continent, and parcelled it out among themselves, laid the foundation for all the misfortunes of the American Aborigines."

    Provenance: Waverly Auctions, 18 September 1983, lot 172.
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