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 Où l'on voit l’Histoire tragique de sa mort, & plusieurs choses curieuses du nouveau monde. Par Monsieur Joutel, l’un des Compagnons de ce Voyage, redigé & mis en ordre par Monsieur de Michel
Paris: Estienne Robinot, 1713. First edition.
Duodecimo (6 9/16” x 3 11/16”, 166mm x 94mm): 2 binder’s blanks, ã12 ẽ4(ẽ4+2 ẽ1) A-Q12 R2(–R2), 2 binder’s blanks [$6 signed; –ã1]. 210 leaves, pp. i-ij (title, blank) iij-xxxiv, 1-386. With an engraved folding map.
Bound in contemporary sprinkled calf. One the spine, five raised bands. Title (“VOYAGE/ DE LA/ LOVISIA”) gilt to red sheep in the second panel. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block sprinkled red.
Hinges starting at the head and cracked in the front. A little splayed. Fore-corners bumped, and strengthened in the front. Tanned generally, with some spots of soiling; scattered foxing. Small repair verso to the stub of the map. Earlier owner’s assessment in inky manuscript to the front free end-paper: “Voyage très râre, et/ très recherché.”
Exhibition history: The Bullock Museum of Texas State History (Austin, TX) , July 2023–January 2024, “La Belle: The Ship That Changed History.”
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, canoed down the Mississippi river in 1682, and claimed for France its basin — La Louisiane, viz. 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).
One of the ships in La Salle’s fleet, La Belle, which had sunk in Matagorda Bay in Texas, was discovered in the mid-1990’s and excavated by the Texas Historical Commission. After a multi-decade effort to extract and preserve the ship — whose lower hull, buried in the sea-floor, was well preserved — it had been reassembled at the Bullock Museum in Austin, along with finds from its cargo. The French state lays claim to the ship, despite it having sunk in U.S. waters and having been excavated by Texas archaeologists; it remains on long-term loan to the Bullock. The present example of the work was loaned to the museum and displayed between the prow of the ship and, fittingly, the gates of the Alamo.
Alden & Landis 713/103; Church 855; Graff 2251; Howes J 266; Jenkins, Basic Texas Books 114; Sabin 36760; Wagner Spanish Southwest 79.
Item #JLR0571
Price: $18,000