Journal Historique du Dernier Voyage que feu M. de laSale fit dans le Golfe de Mexique, pour trouver l'embouchure, & le cours de la Riviere de Missicipi, nommée à present la Riviere de Saint Loüis, qui traverse la Louisiane...
Paris: Estienne Robinot, 1713. First edition.
Duodecimo (6 5/16" x 3 9/16", 160mm x 91mm). With a large folding map "Carte Nouvelle de la Louisiane et de la Riviere de Missisipi..."
Bound in in contemporary mottled calf. Spine divided into seven panels by gilt fillets and rolls. In the panels, gilt floral centerpieces with gilt scrollwork surrounding. Title gilt to brown morocco in the second panel. Edges of the boards with a gilt roll. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block stained red. Green silk marking-ribbon.
Chip to the headpiece, and splits to the front board. Fore-corners every so slightly rebuilt. Wormhole from the rear board all the way to ē3 (politely skirting the map). A good solid text-block, with occasional mild foxing and toning. Some fraying and creasing to the map, which is otherwise very good.
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, canoed down the Mississippi river in 1682, and claimed for France its basin — La Louisiane, the land of Louis (XIV) — on the Gulf of Mexico. He returned in 1684, and that is the voyage described in this volume. It did not go well; La Salle landed in Texas, failed to find the Mississippi and was killed by his men, who mutinied. Joutel led the expedition after La Salle’s death, and his journal provides perceptive first-hand accounting of their onward journey into Canada. The accompanying map contains “the first accurate delineation” of the Mississippi (Howes).
The present example was exhibited at the Bullock Museum of Texas State History (Austin) February-November 2024, opposite the wreck of La Belle, one of La Salle’s ships that sank and was excavated from the seabed near Matagorda Bay in the 1990’s.
Howes J 266; Church 855; Graff 2251; Jenkins Basic Texas Books 114; Wagner Spanish Southwest 79; Sabin 36760; Alden & Landis 713/103.
Item #6JLR0055
Price: $18,000