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“Tell Us About MEXICO, Where
MAXIMILIAN Now Lives”
De Bussierre, Marie Théodore Renouard, vicomte de. L'empire mexicain histoire des toltèques des chichimeques des aztèques et de la conquete espagnole. Paris: Henri Plon, 1863. Small 8vo. [2] ff., 427 pp.
$150.00

Written during the French intervention and clearly aimed at the French reading public who wanted to know more about the land that had attracted Emperor Maximilian. It is a history of Mexico from pre-Columbian times through the Mexican War, with attention paid to the Toltecs and the Aztecs and their arts, sciences, society, and religion.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
The latter part of the book offers a very brief recounting of Javier Mina, the War for Texas independence, and the U.S. intervention in the 1840s and consequent loss of California, New Mexico, etc. to the U.S.
Provenance: From the collection of Alberto Pareño, with his initials at the base of the spine.
Sabin 9561; Palau 37698; Bernal 4295. 20th-century red cloth, with original green printed wrappers bound in. Occasional light foxing. (21371)

Early AMERICAN (German-American) POTBOILER
Decalves, Alonso. Eine ganz neue und sehr merkwurdige Reisebeschreibung, oder, Zuverlassige und glaubwurdige Nachrichten von den westlichen bisjetzt noch unbekannten Theilen von America. Enthaltend: eine Beschreibung derjenigen Lander, welche auf einige tausend Meilen gegen Westen und oberhalb den christlichen Staaten von Nord-America liegen, wie auch eine Schilderung der weissen Indianer, ihrer Sitten Gebräuche und Kleidertrachten. Philadelphia: Gedruckt [bey Neale und Kämmerer, Jun.] und zu haben bey den Herren Buchhandlern, 1796. 12mo (15.5 cm; 6.125"). 82, [2] pp. (pp. 81 to end in facsimile).
$1200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First German-language edition of Decalves's New Travels to the
Westward, a pseudonymous fictitious account of an overland trip from New
Orleans to the Northwest coast and of life on the early American frontier that
includes some element of fact, portions being based on the life and captivity
of Dutchman Johann Vandelure, who married
an
Indian “princess.”
We
locate fewer than ten copies, one of which is now missing.
The work was written to be a potboiler and was read to death in the
German as well as the English editions.
Evans 30324; Sabin 19130 & 98450; Seidensticker, First
Century of German Printing in America, 145; Arndt & Eck, German
Language Printing in the U.S., 1045. Not in Wright, American Fiction.
Modern wrappers. Title-page and p. 82 with bug-spotting; text age-toned
and with staining; fore- and upper margins of pp. 77–80 with short tears
and some crumpling. Minor worming in some lower margins, not taking text.
Pp. 81/82, and final leaf offering advertising, in excellent facsimile. Housed
in a gray cloth clamshell case with red leather spine label. (26968)

Early Biography of Palafox
Dinouart, Joseph-Antoine-Toussaint. Vie du vénérable Dom Jean de Palafox, evêque d'Angélopolis, & ensuite evêque d'Osme, dédiée a Sa Majeté Catholique. Cologne: Nyon, 1767. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). Frontis., iv, lvi, 576 pp.; 3 plts.
$300.00
First edition: Life of the celebrated yet controversial viceroy
and reformer Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza. Abbé Dinouart consulted
an unpublished biography begun by the Jesuit Pierre Champion (and halted due
to Champion's “franchise,” according to Barbier) to produce this
important account of Palafox's life, accomplishments, and disputes with the
Jesuits. Dinouart's Vie includes the text (in French translation) of
Palafox's
letters to the king of Spain and to Pope Innocent X on behalf of the cruelly
treated Mexican Indians, as well as the text of the petition
by Charles III of Spain to the Pope, requesting that Palafox be considered for
canonization.
Click
the images for enlargements.
The
work is illustrated with a frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates done
by Louis le Grand after designs by Gravelot.
Sabin 20201; Palau 73986; LeClerc, Bibliotheca Americana,
3180; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 1003–04.
Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather
title-label; corners, joints, and spine extremities rubbed, spine with two
pinpoint holes and surface cracks to leather. Front free endpaper partially
separated, with pencilled annotation on verso; inner margins of one plate
and opposing page with small area of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item,
pages otherwise clean. All edges marbled in blue. An attractive copy. (25799)

Comunero Revolt
Echauri, Martín José. Document Signed. In Spanish, on paper. San Miguel (Argentina): 14 May 1735. Folio (31 cm x 12.25"). [1] p.
$900.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Bruno de Zavala, the governor of Buenos Aires (1717–34), ordered Captain of Dragoons Echauri to “destroy the Commune that had fortified itself in the pueblo of Tauapig.” In this document Echauri certifies his orders and the fact that he successfully carried them out with “50 men from the Presidio of Buenos Aires, some others from that of Paraguay, others from Villarica, and 200 Guarani Indians from the missions that are under the care of the fathers of the Society of Jesus.” He destroyed the fortifications, put the comuneros to flight, and captured two canons and their powder.
The Comunero Revolt in Argentina (ca. 1723–35) was a prolonged episode of uprising against the colonial government by residents in northeastern Argentina (Corrientes) and an adjacent part of Paraguay who felt marginalized by the Jesuit domination of the Guarani Indian labor pool and the Society of Jesus’s near monopoly of the yerba mate and tobacco trade with Buenos Aires.
Very good condition. Margins a little irregular; paper a little rumpled. Written in a clear, easy to read hand. (24647)

Missions around
the World, Illustrated
Edwards, Bela Bates. The missionary gazetteer; comprising a geographical and statistical account of the various stations of the American and foreign Protestant missionary societies of all denominations, with their progress in evangelization and civilization. Boston: William Hyde & Co., 1832. 12mo (19.4 cm, 7.6"). Frontis., [4], [ix]–431, [1] pp. (pp. 137/38 bound in out of order); 24 plts.
[SOLD]
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
First U.S. edition, “prepared upon the basis of a volume published in London, in 1828, by Mr. Charles Williams” (p. ix). The 1828 Missionary Gazetteer incorporated material from an American work compiled by the Rev. Walter Chapin, almost all of which has been excised and replaced with new descriptions for the present work according to Edwards. The reports are organized alphabetically by city, and describe the establishment of schools, successes and challenges of conversion, and native habits before and after the arrival of missionaries among the Chinese, Africans, Indians, Native Americans, etc.
The volume is illustrated with a total of
25 wood-engraved plates and a wood-engraved title-page vignette depicting architectural views, native dress, dwellings, and religious sites.
American Imprints 12263; Sabin 21891. Late 19th-century half roan with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities showing moderate shelf wear (refurbished) . Front pastedown with old seminary bookplate, frontispiece and title-page with faded rubber-stamps of the same, one preliminary leaf with inked numeral in lower margin. Most plates with offsetting, pages with scattered light spotting; otherwise clean and unmarked.
In fact, a nice copy of an interesting missionary and in part ethnographical work. (25507)
Important Account of
the Southwest & the Mexican Border
Emory, William Hemsley. Notes of a military reconnoissance, from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila rivers. Washington: Wendell & Van Benthuysen, 1848. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.1"). 416 pp.; 43 plts. (lacking 1 fold. map).
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Emory, Brevet Major of the Corps of Topographical Engineers and an outstanding surveyor and mapmaker, here provides a groundbreaking description of the terrain, flora and fauna, and peoples of the historic Southwest. J. Gregg Layne (Zamorano 80) says, “A library of Western Americana is incomplete without [Emory's report].”
The volume is illustrated with
43 lithographed plates done by Weber & Co., including a portrait of “A New Mexican Indian Woman,” a fish of the Gila River, a map of “the actions fought at San Pasqual in upper California between the Americans and Mexicans Dec. 6th & 7th 1846,” and a view of cliffside hieroglyphics, as well as a series of 14 botanical images.
Government document: 30th Congress, 1st Session. Senate. Executive document no. 7; Howes describes this as the second issue of an edition which appeared in the same year as the first. The present example does not include the oversized, folding map found in some copies; the plates here are, however, in the preferred state, attributed to Weber.
Cowan & Cowan 195; Graff 1249 (other 1848 issues only); Haferkorn 38; Howes E145; Sabin 22536 (for House ed. only); Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 148:2; Zamorano 80, 33. Recent black cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Oversized, folding map lacking. Plates and pages with some light to moderate foxing; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into text without loss. Clean, strong. (27364)
(English
Literary Periodical). The monthly magazine;
or, British register...Vol. XX. Part II. for 1805. London: Richard Phillips, [1805].
8vo (22.5 cm, 9"). [2], 676 (lacking 61/62, 589–92 incorrectly numbered
587–90) pp.; fold. map.
$150.00
Collected issues of this monthly “literary journal,”
which actually served as a catchall also for general news and very various
items of interest—including letters and articles on natural history and
voyages or travels; wedding, bankruptcy, and death notices; remarks on pictures,
or on theatrical and musical performances; and assorted free-floating anecdotes
and witticisms, as well as original poetry and reviews of contemporary publications.
The contents are indexed; among the items of interest are a travelogue describing
a journey along the Amazon and through Mexico, a letter to the editor regarding
mistranslations of French words,
a discussion of a Native American tribe allegedly
of Welsh descent, and reviews of recently published works on
history.
This
volume contains one plate, an oversized folding map of Austria.
Provenance:
From the collection of Joshua Gilpin, a Quaker from Philadelphia who established
the first paper mill in Delaware, in 1787.
Paper-covered boards, much worn and abraded, with covers detached
and spine leather chipped and cracking; now contained in a simple acid-free
phase box. Edges untrimmed and, in some instances, ragged. Sewing loosening
with some leaves separated; varying degrees of browning with pages otherwise
generally clean.
For
more MONTHLY MAGAZINE
volumes, click
here.

Hymns & MORE in the
Creek Language
Fleming, John. A short sermon: also hymns, in the Muskokee or Creek language. Boston: Printed for the [American] Board [of Commissioners for Foreign Missions], by Crocker & Brewster, 1835. 16mo (14.5 cm; 5.5"). 35 pp.
$995.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Printed entirely in Creek (save for title-page and captions) using the second Creek alphabet, Fleming's volume packs a lot into a little space: the Creek alphabet with pronunciation guide, a sermon on John 3:26, and 20 hymns (without music). Fleming (1807–94) graduated from Jefferson College in 1829, studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1832, and in that same year was sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to serve among the Creek in what is now Oklahoma. Authorities closed the mission in 1837 and Fleming moved to the Great Lakes area to work among the Ojibwa and Ottawa nations.
A work offering multiple points of interest, including
American poetry in a native language.
Schoolcraft, Indian tongues, 116; Sabin 24700; Pilling, Muskhogean, 34; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 1302; Boston Athenaeum, Schoolcraft Collection, 95; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Muskoki 24; included in the American Poetry collections at Brown and Harvard. Stitched in publisher's stiff marbled wrappers, olive cloth spine. Very nice copy. (29761)

China New Mexico & Other Exotic Lands
González de Mendoza, Juan. Dell' Historia della China, descritta dal P. Gio. Gonzalez di Mendozza dell'Ord. di S. Agost. nella lingua spagnuola. Et tradotta nell'Italiana dal Magn. M. Francesco Avanzo, cittadino originario di Venezia. Roma: Appresso Giovanni Martinelli, 1586. 4to (21.5 cm; 8.5") [8] ff., 379, [1 (blank)] pp., [16] ff. (lacking pp. 263–66).
$1000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The scholarly consensus is that González de Mendoza never visited China; that when his mission arrived in Mexico en route there, the viceroy threw up so many obstacles that he and his travelling companions never even saw the departure port of Acapulco! However, the official Augustinian website (González de Mendoza was an Augustinian friar) states that he did make it to China!
In any case, this work is a standard early European work on the history of China and of the European travellers and missionaries to it. The details are gleaned from previously published
works but were augmented by some unpublished or oral sources.
For Americanists, pp. 301–79 are the most important, being Father Martin Ignacio's account of his voyage from Spain to China by way of the Spanish Main, Mexico, and the Philippines.
The pages on his time in Mexico include an important account of the Espejo Expedition to and discovery of New Mexico.
Provenance: Ex–John Carter Brown Library, with its bookplate.
Palau 105504; Adams G868; Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 10; Lowendahl 30; Sabin 27778 ; Leclerc 261; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 586/34; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 7j. 19th-century half calf with sprinkled edges; interior with the usual browning and stains that characterize 1580s editions printed at Rome, these varying by section with the paper. Short closed tear to title-page and one leaf with lower corner lost, taking a bit of lowest shouldernote; lacking pp. 263–66 (Franciscans in China — an interesting omission/excision!). Library bookplate on front pastedown with its small release stamps.
Rather a nice copy with distinguished provenance for the busted bibliophile. (28311)

Cree Syllabics
Guilloux, N., Father. [three lines in syllabic characters, which are transcribed as] Livre d'apologétique [then]. Winnipeg, Man.: Canadian Publishers Ltd., 1943. 8vo. [4], 114 pp.
$450.00
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Herndon, William Lewis; & Gibbon, Lardner. Exploration of the valley of the Amazon, made under direction of the Navy Department.... Washington: Robert Armstrong, 1853, & A.O.P. Nicholson, 1854. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.1"). 2 vols. I: 414, [2], iii, [1] pp.; 16 plts. II: x, [2], 339, [1] pp.; 36 plts.
$600.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Original government issue of these “Minute, accurate, and very interesting accounts of the aborigines of the Andes, and the Amazon and its tributaries” (Sabin). These two volumes are parts I and II of Senate Executive Document no. 36, 32d Cong., 2d sess., consisting of Lieut. Herndon’s description of following the Amazon itself and Lieut. Gibbon’s account of his travels along the Amazon’s tributaries in Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.
Many of the 52 lithographed plates are in duotone; some were done by Ackerman Lithography and some by P.S. Duval & Co., after views of scenery, buildings, and natives drawn by Lieut. Gibbon.
Two volumes of maps, not present here, were issued separately.
Sabin 31524; Palau 113897. Publisher’s textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; vol. I with spine sunned and cloth chipped at spine extremities; vol. II with corners bumped, cloth peeling away from spine and chipped at spine extremities, spine with gilt dimmed and small area of unobtrusive discoloration from now-absent label. Front pastedowns each with pencilled owner’s name and institutional rubber stamp (no other markings); front free endpaper of vol. II starting to tear along inner margin. Mild to moderate foxing and spotting; a few text gatherings unopened. One plate in vol. I with short tear from outer margin, turning into a narrow scrape extending about halfway into the upper portion of the image; one leaf in vol. II with tiny portion (less than one word) affixed to opposing plate.
Not a perfect set, but a perfectly fascinating one.

“The First Age of Pennsylvania”
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. [Vol. I]. Philadelphia: M'Carty & Davis, 1826. 8vo (22.1 cm, 8.75"). 432, [4 (2 blank, 2 contents)] pp.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of the first collected volume of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's transactions. Following the society's constitution and list of officers are Rawle's inaugural discourse, Vaux's “Memoir on the Locality of the Great Treaty between William Penn and the Indian Natives in 1682,” Wharton's “Notes on the Provincial Literature of Pennsylvania,” James's “Brief Account of the Discovery of Anthracite Coal on the Lehigh,” Morris's “Contributions to the Medical History of Pennsylvania,” and Bettle's “Notices of Negro Slavery, as Connected with Pennsylvania,” among other works. Part II has a separate title-page; the “Account of the First Settlement of the Townships of Buckingham and Solebury” has an errata slip tipped in.
Vol. I not in Shoemaker (see 30192 for vol. II). Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; moderately rubbed and scuffed overall, spine darkened, spine head reinforced some time ago with library cloth tape. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, title-page and two others rubber-stamped, one page pressure-stamped. Mild age-toning, scattered small spots of foxing.
Despite condition notes reflecting onetime residence in a lending library, this is a nice old thing. (29879)

CREE
Horden, John. A grammar of the Cree language, as spoken by the Cree Indians of North America. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1881. 12mo (161 mm; 6.375"). viii, 238 pp.
$1550.00
First edition of one of the first Cree grammars in English. Horden, who began his life as an ironworker, received his calling in 1851 and was sent to Canada with only two weeks notice—during which time he was expected to find a wife. He succeeded in finding both a wife and a fruitful career, eventually becoming the first bishop of Moosonee, diocese of Rupert's Land.
Horden's approach here is rooted in descriptive grammar and is expressed in terms of classic Latin-based structure. He urges his language-learning students to begin with his grammar, but to "use the living voice of the Indians as much as possible" as their guide (p. vi).
A copy of the issue intended for field use: With the flexible, water resistant binding.
Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, 237; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-73 (giving incorrect page count); Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 1853. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Publisher's flexible khaki green covers of water resistant cloth embossed in blind with decoration and stamped in blind with "Cree Grammar." Slight dog-earing of the lower corner of the front cover.
A copy of the very uncommon "field use" issue.
Hunter, John Dunn. Memoirs of a captivity among the Indians of North America, from childhood to the age of nineteen: With anecdotes descriptive of their manners and customs. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1823. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). ix, [1], 447, [1] pp.
$800.00

First U.K. edition, printed in the same year as the Philadelphia
first edition: Controversial captivity narrative, in which Hunter claims to
have been captured as a very young child and raised by Kansas Indians, eventually
leaving his tribe when he was about 19 years old. The work was first acclaimed,
then attacked as a fraud; in recent years, scholars have returned to the debate
with somewhat more faith in the tale’s authenticity (see Drinnon’s
White Savage: The Case of John Dunn Hunter). The memoirs are followed
by an “account of the soil, climate, and vegetable productions of the
territory westward of the Mississippi,” including
much
information about medicine as practiced by the Native Americans of Hunter’s
alleged acquaintance.
Click
the image to the left for an enlargement.
Ayer, Narratives of Indian Captivity, 142; Howes H813;
Sabin 33921. Contemporary half morocco over cloth, rebacked using original
spine with gilt-stamped title and decorations in compartments; leather worn
and chipped. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Pages slightly age-toned, with occasional
instances of small spots of staining, and a few stray pencil marks.
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