Voyage Dans Les Parties Interieures de L'Amerique Septentrionale Pendant les annees 1766, 1767 & 1768
Author: Jonathan Carver (1710-1780)
Year: 1784
Publisher: Chez Pissot
Place: Paris
Description:
451 pages with title page with printer's device, wood cut head and tail pieces and folding map. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5") bound in marbled stiff boards with red label to spine in gilt lettering. First French edition based on the third English edition, considered the best textually.
Jonathan Carver was a Captain in a Massachusetts Colonial unit, explorer and writer. After his exploration of the northern Mississippi valley and western Great Lakes Region, he published a widely read account of his expedition, Travels through America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 (1778). Initially Carver was unable to find a sponsor for his proposed explorations but in 1766, Robert Rogers contracted Carver to lead an expedition to find a western water route to the Pacific Ocean, the Northwest Passage. There was a great incentive to discover this route. The king and Parliament had promised a vast prize in gold for any such discovery. The eastern route to the Pacific was around the Cape of Good Hope. That route was both lengthy and contested by competing European powers. Initially Carver was unable to find a sponsor for his proposed explorations but in 1766, Robert Rogers contracted Carver to lead an expedition to find a western water route to the Pacific Ocean, the Northwest Passage. There was a great incentive to discover this route. The king and Parliament had promised a vast prize in gold for any such discovery. The eastern route to the Pacific was around the Cape of /Good Hope. That route was both lengthy and contested by competing European powers. Carver's book, Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768, was an immediate success when first published in 1778, and a second edition published in Dublin followed the next year; over thirty editions and versions have been published since in several languages. The publication of this book was a significant event in the history of the exploration of the American West as Carver was the first English-speaking explorer to venture west of the upper Mississippi River. He anticipated the idea of a continental divide as he was the first to mention a large mountain range to the west (presumably the Rocky Mountains) that blocks the westward passage and serves as a continental divide. Further, the name 'Oregon' appears in print here for the first time, both in the text, and on one of the maps. 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. The book proved and remained immensely popular.
Condition:
Corners bumped and rubbed, book plate to front pasted down, old sticker to front board, hinges rubbed, small split at head hing else very good.
