•  Sabin 80996; Pilling, Algonquian, 462; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3601a. Not in Banks; not in Evans. Original buckram, showing minor water damage; upper page margins waterstained, obviously to very lightly. Title-page with library stamps and some rough old pen-markings; first two leaves a bit torn at binding.

Thetwo oversized, folding maps were engraved by T. Conder; a genealogical chart in vol. I shows the descent of the Mexican kings from the 13th century, whilenumerous engraved plates depict Mexican artifacts, costumes, activities, flora and fauna, architecture, etc.

Provenance:  First in the University of Miami Library, deacessioned; then in the library of Robert Chamberlain and later in that of Franz V. Scholes, both noted scholars of the Yucatán. Their signatures are on the front free endpaper and their notes are penciled in the margins of many pages.

He was a talented speaker and a well-published writer. His autobiography, The life, history, and travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh (Philadelphia, 1847), went through several editions.

The present work is one of the first published European travel accounts from the pen of a Native American.  He describes what he saw and whom he met (Disraeli, Baron de Rothschild, Lord John Russell, and others), as well as how he was received by the Europeans. The main purpose of the trip was to represent Christian American Indians at the 1850 General Peace Conference at Frankfurt am Main, where in full native attire he delivered a protracted and passionate antiwar speech.

An uncommon work.

Provenance:  Bookplate of St. Catherine's Hall Library of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the American order founded by “Mother” Katharine Drexel. Daughter of one of her time's richest families, Drexel used much of her fortune in efforts on behalf of American Indians.

•  Sabin 16721. Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets; not in Field. On Copway, see: Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online).   Publisher's charcoal grey cloth elegantly stamped in blind on covers; gilt center device on each cover and gilt tooling and stamping on spine. Bookplate as above on front pastedown; neat white number on spine; no other markings. A very good copy.  (25245)

Here along with the Cortés letters are the “Viage de Hernán Cortés desde la antigua Vera-Cruz a México, para la inteligencia de los pueblos, que expresa en sus cartas, y se ponen en el mapa”; “Advertencias para la inteligencia de las cartas de Hernán Cortés” (i.e., information about ancient Mexican history including notes on the calendar and the emperors); “Gobierno político de Nueva España” (being a list of viceroys from Cortés to the Marquis de Croix, taken from a manuscript of Vetancurt's work); and very importantly, “Viage de Hernán Cortés a la península de Californias, y noticia de todas las expediciones que a ella se han hecho hasta el present año de 1769.”

Provenance:  From the collection of the great 19th-century bibliographer, historian, and collector Joaquín García Icazbalceta with his autograph note: “Esta rarisima e importante obra, la compré en Puebla el dia 9 de Febrero de 1864 al Padre Jose maria Yermo en $40 <cuarenta pesos> Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta.”

•  Medina, Mexico, 5380; Sabin 16938; Palau 63204; Medina, Bio-bibliografía de Hernán Cortés, 73; Backal, Imprentas, ediciones, y grabados de México barroco, 77; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 152.   19th-century quarter red Mexican morocco, raised bands, gilt center-device in three compartments and the other two with gilt lettering; spine almost imperceptibly rebacked, with old spine neatly laid down. Old library rubber-stamps on verso of last leaf and title-page, both neatly scratched out in fine pen. A clean, handsome, and desirable copy of this rarity even apart from its stellar provenance.  (20955)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Sabin 16953.   Contemporary treed calf, front joint (outside) starting at top to open. A good+ copy — in fact, a rather nice one.  (20510)

•  Sabin 16964.   Publisher's quarter cloth over marbled paper boards, lightly abraded; light foxing to interior. Private bookplate. Good+ copy. (20502)

The second item here is the first edition of Woodward's collection of revival-themed letters to and from various clergymen, closing with an account of Mrs. Rebecca Ashburn's mysterious dreams. In these dreams a minister unknown to Mrs. Ashburn attempted to save her soul; she later identified her would-be converter as one Dr. William Rogers. This work is very uncommon in print form. OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only five U.S. institutional holdings of this Philadelphia printing, although it is widely held in microform.

•  Essay: Sabin 17433; Shaw & Shoemaker 370; Rosenbach, American Jewish Bibliography, 123; Singerman, Judaica Americana, 0136. Increase: Shaw & Shoemaker 2587; Sabin 105172.   Period-style half mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and first text page institutionally pressure-stamped. Pages lightly age-toned, somewhat more so in second work; one leaf with tear from outer margin extending into text.  (25209)

Father Cuoq (1821–98) was an extremely accomplished linguist as evidenced by his becoming fluent in both Algonquin and Iroquois; Field (Indian Bibliography, p. 93) writes glowingly of his mastery of these languages. His life as a missionary of the Order of Sulpitians, notably among the Nipissing at Lake of Two Mountains, certainly aided in his scholarly achievement.

•  Pilling, Algonquian, 100-101; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 952; Field 391; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Algonkin-14; Sabin 17980. Not in Banks; not in Evans, Masinanhikan. Original printed green wrappers, spine reinforced some time ago, edges chipped. Half-title with pencilled annotations. First text page rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages otherwise clean.