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Catalogue 259 Native Americans |
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Section II: Chinook to Cutler |
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Papers
on Book Collecting by William S. Reese
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34. [Chinook Language]: A DICTIONARY OF THE CHINOOK JARGON, OR INDIAN TRADE LANGUAGE OF THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST. Victoria: T. N. Hibben & Company, [ca. 1871]. 26pp. Original printed wrappers. Minor soiling to covers, else very good or better. The earliest citation for the Chinook Jargon is George Gibbs’ 1863 edition for the Smithsonian Institution, but even there the preface cites an earlier version furnished by a B. R. Mitchell of the U.S. Navy, also for the Smithsonian. The present edition is most likely a recent reprint of the first Hibben edition around 1871. As trading developed throughout the Pacific Northwest, this little volume was in high demand. It was reprinted over fifty times, this being one of the earlier editions. PILLING, CHINOOKAN, pp.21-23, 32-33. $1250. 35. [Chippewa New Testament]: EWH OOWAHWEENDAH-MAHGAWIN OWH TABANEMENUNG JESUS CHRIST, KEAHNEKUHNOOTUHBEEGAHDAG ANWAMAND EGEWH AHNESHENAHBAG OJIBWAY ANINDJIG. Toronto: Henry Roswell, 1854. 766pp. plus errata. Modern quarter calf and marbled boards in period style, raised bands, gilt ruling above and below the bands as accents, gilt center devices in spine compartments, deep red label lettered in gilt. One corner tip of titlepage lost. No other chips or tattering, text is quite clean. Very good. First edition of this translation of the King James version of the New Testament into the Ojibwa (a.k.a. Chippewa) language, preceded by the translator’s version of the Gospels, in 1850, and by two other complete New Testaments. The translator, Frederick O’Meara (1814-88), was active in translating the Bible, hymns, and the Book of Common Prayer into Ojibwa. He was a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel mission to the Chippewa and served for many years at the mission on Great Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. The first complete translation of the New Testament into Ojibwa appeared in 1833 and was the effort of Edwin Jones, a surgeon in the U.S. Army (with the help of John Taylor, a U.S. army interpreter). The second translation was by Henry Blatchford and appeared in 1844. O’Meara’s is the third translation and the first printed in Canada. A very good copy of an uncommon indigenous language item. PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 2830 (who lists it as by James rather than Frederick O’Meara). AYER INDIAN LINGUISTICS (CHIPPEWA) 32. DARLOW & MOULE 3034. $1600. The Only Indian Treaty 36. [Choctaws and Chickasaws]: UNITED STATES MICHA CHAHTA MICHA CHIKASHA AIENA TREATY ANUMPA AI ITIM APESA TOK. TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE CHOCTAW AND CHICKASAW INDIANS. [Washington. 1856]. 19pp. Self-wrappers, modern spine paper reinforcement. Paper repairs in lower and upper foremargins of titlepage. Otherwise clean and very good. This is the only United States treaty with any Indian tribes to be printed in an Indian language. The so-called "Three-Way" Treaty divides two warring tribes and ceded lands in the Indian Territory to the United States. The United States commissioner was George W. Manypenny. This treaty, concluded in Washington during the Pierce administration, relates to lands on the Red, Arkansas, and Canadian rivers, annuities, and other government support for the tribes. It separates the two closely related but hostile tribes, permitting the Chickasaws to establish a separate government. "Extremely rare" – Eberstadt. EBERSTADT TREATIES 37. PILLING, MUSKHOGEAN, p.91. RADER 3447 (note). $2500. Reporting on Indian Captives 37. Claus, Daniel: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED "D. CLAUS," TO CAPT. MATHEWS, REPORTING ON INDIAN CAPTIVES DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION]. Montreal. March 23, 1780. [2]pp. written on folio sheet. Old folds. Four small pin holes. Very good. Accompanied by a typed transcription. Daniel Claus (1727-87) came to North America from Germany in 1749 and settled for a time in Philadelphia. Almost immediately upon his arrival he became interested in the various languages of the tribes of the Six Nations. He worked under William Johnson, and in 1760 was based in Montreal, becoming deputy agent to the Canadian Indians and reporting to both Johnson and the local military government. By the mid-1760s he had married and had acquired considerable land in the vicinity of Albany, New York. His life changed, both administratively and personally, when in 1774, Sir William Johnson died suddenly, and Sir Guy Carleton replaced Claus with John Campbell. Shortly thereafter, with the outbreak of the American Revolution and the subsequent defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga, the Loyalist cause in the upper Hudson valley was lost, and Claus and his family fled to Canada, leaving behind their lands and their possessions. In 1778, Frederick Haldimand, Carleton’s successor, appointed Claus deputy agent of the Six Nations in Canada, with special emphasis on the Mohawks. In this hurriedly written letter (probably the original draft of the letter, containing many manuscript corrections), which pertains to one Peter Hansen, "active in ye Rebellion," whom the Indians had taken for the British "for intelligence," Claus also mentions in an afterthought: "The Mohawk Village here is somewhat sickly within this short time." $5750. 38. [Clayton, Augustin Smith]: A VINDICATION OF THE RECENT AND PREVAILING POLICY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BOTH IN REFERENCE TO ITS INTERNAL AFFAIRS, AND ITS RELATION WITH THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT, IN TWO SERIES OF ESSAYS.... Athens, Ga.: Published by O.P. Shaw, at the Office of "The Athenian," 1827. [2],x,[9]-90pp. Dbd. Titlepage worn, old tape repair at top edge. Tanned and foxed, tape repair on one internal leaf. Good only. In a half morocco and cloth case, spine gilt. A series of articles by influential Georgia legislator Augustin Smith Clayton on two of the most pressing issues of the day: Georgia’s treatment of Indian tribes, and the Bank of the United States. Clayton launches a vigorous defense of Georgia’s policy of extending jurisdiction over Indian lands, in the face of criticism from President John Quincy Adams and others across the nation. He opposed the Bank of the United States as monopolistic, oppressive, and foreign controlled. Clayton’s articles originally appeared in the Columbian Centinel under the name of "Atticus." This collected printing adds a prefatory address by the author. OCLC locates only nine copies. Scarce. DE RENNE I, p.402. SABIN 99823. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 28518. OCLC 15298659. DAB IV, pp.182-84. $2750. Native Americans of the Wine Country 39. Cloudman, John Greenleaf: [ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING ON CANVAS DEPICTING THE POMO INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA]. [California. 1852-1853]. Oil on canvas, 26 x 21 inches. Signed by the artist. In fine condition. In a handsome gilt frame. This striking painting depicts a village of Pomo Indians in northern California, executed by artist John G. Cloudman while he was in California in 1852-53. It is an important early depiction of American Indians, among the earliest known from the era of United States control of the state. The name "Pomo" is loosely applied to a related group of tribes who occupied the country from Bodega Bay north to Fort Bragg along the California coast, extending inland to the Russian River valley and Clear Lake, encompassing all of Sonoma and part of Mendocino counties. As the Handbook of North American Indians points out, there are actually seven distinct tribes with very different languages under the loose designation of "Pomo," sharing general cultural patterns such as basket design, construction of lodges, and the like. 19th-century white accounts tend to lump these distinct tribes into a single "Pomo" designation. Points of contact with the European cultures on the coast and in the Bay area – Spanish, Russian, and then American – varied, but prior to the gold rush the various Pomo tribes more or less avoided acculturation. This changed rapidly after 1849, and in 1850 the murder of two American ranchers who had abused members of the Eastern Pomo tribe led to a massacre of Pomos by a detachment of U.S. Cavalry at Bloody Island. The following year Col. Redick McKee was appointed Indian agent, and his extended tour of the area provides the first detailed account of the Russian River country and of the various Pomo tribes (published in Schoolcraft’s Information Respecting...the Indian Tribes of the United States, Vol. 3, pp.99-177, in 1853). He was accompanied by linguist and ethnologist George Gibbs, who produced the first vocabularies of Pomo, also published by Schoolcraft. Thus the 1851-52 period really marks the first extended contact between Americans and the Pomo tribes. John G. Cloudman (1813-92) was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 1848 he went to Europe to study with Paul Delaroche, returning to establish himself as a portrait painter in Portland, Maine. In 1852 and 1853 he travelled to California, then evidently returned east. This painting must have been executed during that visit. It is likely that Cloudman visited the Pomos in 1852, possibly in the company of McKee or Gibbs, if the latter continued his ethnological work on the tribe towards his publication of the next year. With or without them, he probably travelled up the valley of the Russian River, and painted this work either among the Southern or Central Pomo along the river. Eastern Pomo had distinctly different housing structures than the other tribes, and the ones Cloudman depicts are almost identical to those which appear in a Carleton Watkins photograph of 1860, typical of those he would have encountered among the western tribes. Most likely this painting was done somewhere along the Russian River in northern Sonoma County. The painting shows a Pomo village, with five of the distinctive lodges. A family consisting of mother, father, child, and dog are in front of the nearest lodge, while other Indians can be seen around the lodges in the background. A striking, ethnologically important painting, which is also one of the earliest depictions of the present-day Sonoma wine country. This painting was sold by the well-known book and art dealers, Edward Eberstadt & Son, in 1958 (for $900). It later passed through the hands of Kennedy Galleries in New York. Handbook of North American Indians 8, pp.274-323. Schoolcraft, Information... 3, pp.99-177. HUGHES, ARTISTS IN CALIFORNIA, p.107. EBERSTADT 146:36 (this painting). The Kennedy Quarterly XII:2, item 70 (June 1974). $75,000. Primary History of the Iroquois 40. Colden, Cadwallader: THE HISTORY OF THE FIVE INDIAN NATIONS OF CANADA, WHICH ARE DEPENDENT ON THE PROVINCE OF NEW-YORK IN AMERICA, AND ARE THE BARRIER BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN THAT PART OF THE WORLD. London: Printed for T. Osborne, 1747. xvi,[4],90,iv,91-204,283,[1]pp. plus folding frontispiece map. Contemporary calf boards, rebacked in sympathetic style, spine and boards gilt. Engraved bookplate on front pastedown. 19th-century pencil inscriptions on titlepage. Occasional minor foxing, light soiling and tanning. A very good copy. For decades, the only reliable colonial history of the Iroquois, and one which colored British and American policy throughout the 18th century. Lawrence Wroth says this was "almost the only book in English that pretended to give anything beyond the most general information about the manners and customs, history and organization of that confederacy of Indians...." Wroth goes on for several more pages in praise of the book. The first edition was issued in New York in 1727. Streeter notes that only ten copies of this earlier edition are known. This second edition is vastly expanded, the whole second part being made up of Colden’s Papers Relating to the Indian Trade, originally issued in New York in 1724. According to Wroth, about 300 copies of this edition were issued before the substitution of the titlepage with a later date. The map is entitled "A Map of the Country of the Five Nations, belonging to the Province of New York, and of the Lakes near which the Nations of Far Indians live, with part of Canada." A crucial work. STREETER SALE 868. VAIL 435. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 747/38. SABIN 14273. WROTH, AMERICAN BOOKSHELF, pp.91-95. HOWES C560. PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 832. $2750. 41. Colden, Cadwallader: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM CADWALLADER COLDEN, CONCERNING INDIAN AFFAIRS]. Fort George, N.Y. March 16, 1764 [i.e. 1765]. [1]p., docketed on verso: "March 16th 1765." Old fold marks, tanned. Overall good. Colden, scientist and philosopher, was one of the most brilliant leaders of colonial New York. His book, The History of the Five Nations... (1727), is a classic account of American Indians during the colonial period. In this letter, dated March 16, 1764 (but docketed 1765), Colden writes: "I have sent [this letter] by the bearer express that Indians may have as soon as in my power every thing that may tend to make them easy in my steady resolutions that they shall have justice don [sic] them. I have agreed to pay the bearer John Lee twelve pounds for carrying it [the letter] if this expense do not come within your allowance for contingencies I shall pay it...." $2250. 42. Colden, Cadwallader: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM CADWALLADER COLDEN TO SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON, CONCERNING INDIAN AFFAIRS]. Fort George, N.Y. Feb, 11, 1765. [1]p. with integral blank leaf, docketed on verso. Folio. Old fold marks. Overall very good. Colden, a Loyalist lieutenant-governor of New York and a noted scientist and philosopher, was one of the most brilliant leaders of the colonial period. His book, The History of the Five Nations... (1727), is a classic account of American Indians for the time. This letter from to Johnson, superintendent of Indian Affairs, pertains to the Indian licenses for trade: "Last Wednesday the Council agreed to the Form of Licenses for trading with the Indians...I am very desirous to hear the best accounts of your Congress with the Indians at this time. You will oblige me by informing me of every thing which you think proper for me to know in the granting of Licenses of Trade." $2750. 43. Colden, Cadwallader: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM CADWALLADER COLDEN TO SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON, CONCERNING INDIAN AFFAIRS]. Fort George, N.Y. April 22, 1770. [2]pp. on folded letter sheet, docketed on verso, with integral blank leaf. Old folds, bit tanned. Small stain on first page. Overall quite good. Addressed to Sir William Johnson, superintendent of Indian Affairs. This letter concerns trade with the Indians and a July 10 meeting with commissioners from Canada as well as from the Colonies. After addressing some political and business matters, Colden writes in a postscript to Johnson: "The 10th of July is approved for the Commissioners of the several Colonies to meet at this place to construct a plan for regulating the Trade with the Indians, perhaps you may think it proper to be here at that time." Colden, scientist and philosopher, was one of the most brilliant leaders of colonial New York. His book, The History of the Five Nations... (1727), is a classic account of American Indians during the colonial period. $2750. After Manhattan, the Indians 44. [Colonial Indian Land Cession]: [EXTRAORDINARY MANUSCRIPT DEED, SIGNED BY MULTIPLE INDIAN LEADERS, CEDING A LARGE TRACT OF LAND ON LONG ISLAND TO THE VAN CORTLANDT FAMILY]. Long Island. June 1, 1703. Manuscript on paper, 11¾ by 14½ inches, with further manuscript text on the verso. Several fold separations, minor marginal chipping and abrasion. Else very good, with sixteen original red wax seals. A very rare, important, and informative document, transferring a large tract of land on Long Island from the local Indian tribes to members of the wealthy and influential Van Cortlandt family. It follows in a long line of similar transactions stretching back to 1626, when Peter Minuet purchased Manhattan Island from the local Indians on behalf of the Dutch West India Company. In 1670, Gov. Francis Lovelace purchased Staten Island from local chiefs. The present contract was made on June 1, 1703, between twelve Indian chiefs and Gertrude Van Cortlandt, widow of the late Stephanus Van Cortlandt, and her children. The names of the chiefs on the document include Wamshas, Suppans, Porspas, Rawson, and others from the local tribes. They agree to sell, "for and in consideration of eighty three pounds currant money of New York to us in hand paid," an extensive tract of land "on the south side of Nassau island." The parameters of the land are described in the document, and it appears to be along the southern shore of Long Island, in the area encompassed by the present towns of Islip and Bay Shore. Stephanus Van Cortlandt, one of the most prominent men of colonial New York in the second half of the 17th century, was granted a royal license by the British to obtain land from the Indians beginning in 1677. His youngest brother, Jacobus Van Cortlandt (1658-1739), was mayor of New York City in 1710 and 1719, and he also set about amassing a large estate through purchases of land from local Indian tribes (a part of which became present-day Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx). The present deed has been signed and affirmed by Jacobus Van Cortlandt on the verso, who attests that the chiefs have presented themselves before him and confirmed the accuracy of the document. The Van Cortlandt family was among the most prominent clans in colonial New York. Stephanus Van Cortlandt (1643-1700) was born in New Amsterdam (now New York), the son of a wealthy merchant. In 1681 he married Gertrude Schuyler of Albany, and they had eleven children. Stephanus Van Cortlandt rose to prominence as a merchant himself, and he successfully negotiated the power struggle between the Dutch and British in New York, being appointed to positions of power by colonial authorities on both sides. In 1677 the British governor of New York, Sir Edmund Andros, appointed him the first native-born mayor of New York City, and he served on the Governor’s Council, as receiver of the revenue for New York and New Jersey, and as a judge on several courts. Also in 1677, Andros granted Van Cortlandt a license to obtain land from the Indians, and in 1683 he began buying huge tracts of land along the Hudson River and in western Connecticut. He also owned land in Manhattan, as well as in the counties of Suffolk (on the northeast shore of Long Island), Richmond (on Staten Island), and Kings (in present-day Brooklyn). Upon his death in 1700, Van Cortlandt divided his land among his eleven children, though his widow, Gertrude, largely controlled the estates until her death in 1723. The Van Cortlandts continued to add to the family lands through purchases such as the one executed in this deed. Any such early colonial Indian land cession documents are very rare, and quite under-utilized in telling the history of relations between Indians and colonists. An important historical record. ANB 22, pp.172-73. $37,500. A Highly Important Early Indian Land 45. [Colonial Indian Land Cession]: [MANUSCRIPT DEED, SIGNED BY SIX INDIAN LEADERS, CEDING MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED SQUARE MILES OF LAND IN UPSTATE NEW YORK TO KING GEORGE II]. [Np, but likely Albany]. Dec. 28, 1738. Folio sheet, 16 x 12½ inches. Containing the manuscript deed on one side, with six original wax seals, and a manuscript attestation dated 1741 on the verso. A few small holes in the document and at the edges, but with no real loss of text. In very good condition, and a very attractive document. In a double-sided glass frame. A rare manuscript deed, signed by six chiefs of the Mohawk nation, selling some 216 square miles of land in east-central New York to King George II. The text of the deed reads, in part: "We...Native Indians of the Mohawk Castle, in the province of New York, send greeting. Know ye, that for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred eighty pounds, current lawful money of New York...have bargained, sold released, and for ever quit claim unto our said most gracious sovereign Lord King George the Second, his heirs and successors all our rights, title, interest, claim, property, possession, and demand, of in and to, a certain tract of land on the north side of the Mohawk River." The Mohawk leaders who have signed the document are identified as Esras, Esras Jr., Jacob, Long Sett, Symon, and Cornelius, and the deed is countersigned by three witnesses. Chief Cornelius’ name stands alone, but the other five chiefs have given their totemic marks, and each chief has a wax seal beside his name. The payment was to delivered to the tribe by Johannis Wendell and John Lindsey, acting on behalf of the British crown. The land is situated northwest of Albany, and its parameters are carefully given: "a certain tract of land on the north side of the Mohawk River, beginning at the back of a tract of land formerly granted unto Hendrick Hauser, running northwardly, about eighteen miles, then eastwardly, about twelve miles, then southwardly, about eighteen miles, towards or to the back of the lands granted to Ebinezer Wilson, then westwardly about twelve miles to the place it began." The land is further identified as running along both sides of the "Osagondago Road," and the deal includes "all manner of woods, underwoods, trees, mines, minerals, quarries, fences, improvements, herediments, and appurtenances." It appears that the validity of this deed may have been challenged just a few years after it was executed, for on the verso there is a manuscript attestation, dated Sept. 30, 1741, in the hand of Jacob Glen, a justice of the peace for the county of Albany. He writes that it has been sworn on a Bible in his presence that the Indians have been paid the full amount, according to the contract as written. A rare document, providing firsthand information on colonial British land transactions with the Mohawks, just a generation before that tribe would ally itself with the British in the French and Indian War. $37,500. 46. Colton, Calvin: TOUR OF THE AMERICAN LAKES, AND AMONG THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY, IN 1830: DISCLOSING THE CHARACTER AND PROSPECTS OF THE INDIAN RACE. London: Frederick Westley and A.H. Davis, 1833. Two volumes. xxxii,316; vii,387pp. Three-quarter antique calf and marbled boards. Very good. An early detailed account of Indians in Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Old Northwest, including substantial treatment of the case of the Cherokees in Georgia against the U.S. in 1831. "Mr. Colton seems to have been imbued with the laudable design of affording such information regarding the Indians he visited, as would not only excite the interest of his readers in his narration of incident, but would arouse the sympathy of the humane to their wretched condition. Almost the entire work is devoted to the relation of Indian affairs. More than half of the first volume is occupied with personal observations of Aboriginal life, and statements made to him regarding it. The second volume is entirely filled with a collection of facts relating to their origin, wars, treaties, treatment by the governments of Great Britain and the United States, and the result of missions among them" – Field. HOWES C619. FIELD 345. SABIN 14783. GREENLY 68. $1350. Tensions with the Creeks and Cherokees 47. [Continental Congress]: THE COMMITTEE CONSISTING OF MR. KEARNEY, MR. CARRINGTON, MR. BINGHAM, MR. SMITH, AND MR. DANE, TO WHOM WAS REFERRED THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR, AND SUNDRY PAPERS RELATIVE TO INDIAN AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT; AND ALSO A MOTION OF THE DELEGATES FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA...[caption title]. [Philadelphia? 1787]. Broadsheet, 8 x 13 inches. Light edge wear. Very good. A most important document from the 1787 Continental Congress relating to burgeoning hostilities with the Creeks and Cherokees on the southern frontier. The text includes the investigative committee’s grim report to Congress, attesting both to the encroachment by U.S. citizens on Indian land, and the failure of North Carolina and Georgia to engage the two tribes in mutually beneficial trade. The committee’s report is followed by four important Congressional resolutions. The first recommends North Carolina and Georgia cede land to the United States, presumably to enable the federal government to better negotiate with the Indians (as was being done on the northwest frontier). The second encourages Georgia citizens to keep peace as best as they are able. The third resolves to employ federal forces to pursue tribes that launch unprovoked attacks on peaceful citizens. The fourth resolution dispatches the superintendent of Indian Affairs, Benjamin Hawkins, to meet with the Cherokees and Creeks to inform them of Congress’ continued willingness to hear their grievances and address their concerns. Together, these resolutions comprise an important step towards the Creek treaty of 1790 which formalized the U.S.-Creek border and stipulated that the Creek nation would have no relations with individual states beyond official federal relations. The latter point marked a significant exercise of the exclusively federal power to establish and maintain treaties. "An important document revealing troublesome affairs in Georgia and North Carolina with the Creeks and the Cherokees. White encroachments on Indian lands, inadequate trade, and other causes make it ‘probable a war will ensue’ with the tribes named, and perhaps a general Indian war. It is recommended that steps be taken similar to those Northwest of the River Ohio" – Eberstadt. While Evans and others have posited New York as a possible place of publication, others suggest Philadelphia as the logical place. A vital source for early federal relations with two leading southern tribes. Extremely rare. OCLC locates only three copies, at the University of Virginia, Yale, and the Library of Congress. Evans locates one additional copy, at The New York Public Library. EVANS 20770. NAIP w030427. DE RENNE I, p.243 FORD, CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 447. EBERSTADT 160:258. OCLC 22860208, 26086186. $9500. Cook’s Third Voyage, 48. Cook, James, and James King: A VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. UNDERTAKEN BY THE COMMAND OF HIS MAJESTY, FOR MAKING DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.... London. 1785. Three text volumes plus atlas volume. [10],xcvi,421; [14],548; [13],556pp. Eighty-seven maps and plates (some folding), with sixty-one plates and two maps in the atlas volume, and the rest bound with the text. Quarto text and folio atlas. Uniformly bound in modern half morocco and marbled boards, spines gilt, all edges marbled. Scattered light tanning (a few leaves more than others), an occasional fox mark. Large folding map in atlas with expert repair at a fold; and seventeen atlas plates with expert minor repair, mostly in the upper outer corner. A near fine set. Captain James Cook’s third voyage, based on his journals and those of James King, who succeeded him as commander after Cook’s murder in Hawaii. This is the second edition, issued the same year as the first and identical in format, though with added material. The third voyage was undertaken to continue the British survey of the Pacific, but most particularly to search for a northwest passage from the western side. Sailing in 1776, the expedition called at Kerguelen Island, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Cook, Tonga, and Society islands, then sailed north and discovered Christmas Island and the Hawaiian Islands. They then thoroughly explored and charted the Northwest Coast from the Bering Straits along the coast of Alaska and Canada, as far south as present northern California. Returning to Hawaii in 1778, the expedition was at first received warmly; but after departing and being forced to return to repair a mast, trouble developed which led to a tragic series of events in which the great navigator was killed. However, the expedition pressed on under Clerke and then Gore, and explored the coasts of Siberia and Kamchatka before returning to England in 1780. This publication is thus of great interest as a Pacific voyage, a work on Alaska and the Northwest Coast, for its cartographical contribution, and for its important illustrations, based on original drawings made by artist John Webber. A primary account of Hawaii, Alaska, and the Northwest Coast, this is the most basic of Pacific voyages. HILL 361 (1st ed). HOLMES 47. SABIN 16250. STREETER SALE 3478. HOWES C729a, "b." WAGNER, NORTHWEST COAST 695-699, 701. LADA-MOCARSKI 37. FORBES HAWAII 64. $18,500. The Speech of Cornplanter 49. [Cornplanter]: SOME TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN THE INDIANS AND FRIENDS IN PENNSYLVANIA IN 1791 & 1792. London: Printed by James Phillips..., 1792. [4],14,[2]pp. on folded sheets, untrimmed. A nice, fresh copy in original state. Very good. In a half morocco box. This pamphlet prints the appeal of Chief Cornplanter of the Senecas and the Friends’ response, as well as the Friends’ communications with the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws. Cornplanter’s address is of special interest in that it relates to his wish that two Seneca boys, along with the son of his translator, be taken in by the Friends and educated. This pamphlet also contains a speech by Philadelphia Quakers to deputies from the Southern Nations of Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws. A significant speech by a famous Indian leader. SABIN 60624. $3000. A Remarkable Manuscript Record 50. [Council at Vincennes]: COUNCIL HELD AT VINCENNES WITH CERTAIN CHIEFS AND WARRIORS OF THE SAQUE, FOX, AND KASKASKIAS INDIANS, AT WHICH ATTENDED SEVERAL PIANKKESHAWS AND OUIATTONONS. [SIGNED BY THREE INTERPRETERS AND FIVE WITNESSES, INCLUDING FRANCIS VIGO]. [Fort Knox, Northwest Territory]. June 20, 1794. [12]pp. manuscript plus one blank leaf. Small folio. A few very tiny tears and losses at folds, old stitching loose. Overall condition is excellent. In a half morocco and cloth box. This is the manuscript record of a council held between members of the Fox, Sac, and Kaskaskia tribes and the United States, represented by captains Pasteur and Prior, at Vincennes on the Wabash River in present-day Indiana. The council came at a crucial time. The prestige of the United States with the western Indians had collapsed after the resounding defeat of Harmar and St. Clair on the Wabash in 1791, and the frontier situation in the Northwest had remained troubled and fluid, with British agents actively inciting further warfare against the Americans. In 1794 the Americans launched their counter-offensive, under Gen. Anthony Wayne, who recruited and trained his army of regulars and Kentucky militia in the spring and summer of 1794. Against this backdrop of impending war, with conflict expected on the northern frontier, the United States sought to secure its flank by cajoling and threatening the tribes to the west. The Vincennes Council, held in late June, played a crucial role in securing the loyalty of tribes which could have done great damage to the overextended Americans. In this, it was a resounding success. The three tribes remained loyal to the American side. On Aug. 20, 1794, only two months after the Vincennes Council, Gen. Wayne and his forces utterly routed the British-backed tribes at Fallen Timbers, near present-day Toledo. The Council at Vincennes played no small part in making this possible. In this record of the Council, chiefs from the three tribes express their affection for Gen. George Washington, the United States, and France, and request more provisions from the white settlers, especially guns: "...immediately on receiving the letter [of invitation...’requesting them to go and see General Washington’], he [Saque Chief Shehkowak] and his men did not hesitate to come...he hoped that guns would be given to his young men; for they were fond of their brothers’ guns...the Spaniards...told them they were fools, they would get nothing from the Americans, not even a knife, but that notwithstanding, he trusted [them]...Brother! I expect you will take pity on the red people now here...Don’t be sparing of your goods...help your children and your children will help you, you will grow stronger together, and be able to drive away all bad things...." Chief Ducoin of the Kaskaskias announces: "I desire all persons now present, both white and red, to listen with attention, for I am going to speak. My father General Washington, Congress and Colo. Jefferson, open your ears and listen to what I shall say. I shall hide nothing from you. One half of your children on the Mississippi and Wabash are bad – General Washington sent us here to put the bad children in a good way." The document continues with further transcripts of speeches of the various chiefs attending the council, including mention of what language each individual was using. At the end, it is signed by seven witnesses attesting that it is a true record. One witness, Francis Vigo (1747-1836), was a prominent fur trader and merchant with headquarters in St. Louis. During the Revolution, his aid was instrumental in George Rogers Clark’s efforts to secure the northwest country from British influence. Other witnesses were members of the American party. An extraordinary record of a crucial Indian council, one which played a vital part in the American victory in the Northwest in the summer of 1794, and helped to establish the unquestioned control of the United States in the Old Northwest. $37,500. 51. Cox, Ross: ADVENTURES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER, INCLUDING THE NARRATIVE OF A RESIDENCE OF SIX YEARS ON THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, AMONG VARIOUS TRIBES OF INDIANS HITHERTO UNKNOWN: TOGETHER WITH A JOURNEY ACROSS THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. London. 1831. Two volumes. xxiv,368; viii, 400pp. Half titles. Original paper boards, spines rebacked in paper, original printed paper labels. Armorial bookplate of Thomas Aloysius Perry. Minor stains to boards, very light scattered foxing, else fine, untrimmed, in a modern cloth case, gilt morocco labels. This book is usually considered with the works of Alexander Ross to be the prime source of information on Oregon in the early period. Cox left Hawaii and arrived in Oregon with the Astoria party in 1812, later working for the Northwest Company. In 1817 he went overland to Montreal. "Cox’s narrative gives an excellent firsthand account of the fur trade and of the Indian tribes in Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington with whom the fur traders dealt and sometimes fought. While Cox was making this journey the tension between Hudson’s Bay and Northwest Companies had become very acute and he gives a good account of their rivalry" – Streeter. WAGNER-CAMP 43:1. TWENEY 89, 10. HOWES C822, "aa." PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 915. FIELD 376. SABIN 17267. JUDD 47. PEEL 83. COWAN, p.59. STREETER SALE 3702. HILL 390. FORBES HAWAII 775. $3000. An Indian Treaty of Great Rarity, 52. [Creek Indians]: IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 14th SEPTEMBER, 1804. ORDERED THAT THE MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES...BE PRINTED UNDER AN INJUNCTION OF SECRECY, FOR USE OF THE SENATE...[cover title]. [Containing:] A TREATY CONCLUDED BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE CREEK NATION OF INDIANS. [Washington. 1804]. [30]pp. (misnumbered 28). Dbd. Contemporary ink ownership signature, "S.R. Bradley," in upper margin of p.[1]. Near fine. In a half morocco box. The first printing of this significant Creek Indian treaty, signed at the Flint River agency Nov. 3, 1804, between Benjamin Hawkins and Hopoie Micco, accompanied by letters from Thomas Jefferson, Hopoie Micco, Benjamin Hawkins, and Henry Dearborn. The treaty certifies the sale of Creek lands in the forks of the Oconee and Ockmulgee rivers in Georgia to the United States in exchange for certain privileges and $200,000 in stock at 6% interest, paid as a semiannual annuity. In his letter to the Senate introducing the treaty, Jefferson writes that Benjamin Hawkins, then serving as the sole commissioner to the Creek Nation, exceeded the sanctioned price for the lands in his negotiations with Chief Hopoie Micco. Jefferson officially commends Hawkins’ decision, however, pointing to the importance of the land to the state of Georgia, the Creek tribe as being "one of those most fixed in the policy of holding fast to their lands," and the hope that the high price will secure a "future peace with this important tribe and an indemnity for the breach of it" (pp.4-5). A brief letter by Hopoie Micco to Hawkins follows the treaty, emphasizing that the "tract of land at the Ocmulgee old field" remains under Creek title, reserved as "a place to meet and trade with our white friends" (p.[11]). Hawkins’ letter, also dated Nov. 3, describes the circumstances of the negotiations with Hopoie Micco, whom he mentions had met heavy opposition from fellow Creeks in signing the treaty. The three additional letters are from Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, dated 1802, 1803, and 1804, and include instructions for the commissioners to the Creeks. The wording of the title of this document suggests that it was never publicly issued, and was printed only for the use of the Senate, possibly fewer than fifty copies being printed. The present copy of the pamphlet bears the ownership signature of Stephen Row Bradley (1754-1830), jurist, Revolutionary War officer, and U.S. Senator from Vermont from 1791 to 1795 and 1801 to 1813. A rare document, with two copies located between Sabin, Shaw & Shoemaker, and OCLC, at the Library of Congress and The New York Public Library. SABIN 96617. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 7506. DAB II, pp.575-76. DAH II, pp.85-86. $6500. French Raid Against the Fox Indians 53. Crespel, Emanuel: VOYAGES DU R.P. EMANUEL CRESPEL, DANS LE CANADA ET SON NAUFRAGE EN REVENANT EN FRANCE.... Frankfurt. 1752. [8],135pp. Small octavo. Later half mottled calf and marbled boards, spine gilt, leather label. A near fine copy. Father Crespel was a Recollet missionary who went to Canada in 1724, and was for a time a priest near Montreal. Later he was stationed for three years at Fort Niagara, for two years at Cataracoui, then Kingston, and finally at Fort St. Frederick on Lake Champlain. While returning to France in 1736, he was shipwrecked, and after a harrowing winter on an island in the St. Lawrence, he finally reached home in 1738. In 1728, while in Upper Canada, he accompanied an expedition of four hundred French troops and eight hundred Indians from Lake Huron into Lake Michigan, to raid the Fox Indians in present-day Wisconsin. The tribe was interfering with French trade and communication on Lake Michigan. This work provides the only account of that expedition. For this account, and other observations on the French presence on the Great Lakes in the period, both Howes and Streeter call this "an important supplement to the narratives of Sagard and LeClerc." This is the second edition, after the first of 1742, and is signed by the editor, Louis Crespel, on the endsheet. HOWES C880. STREETER SALE 122. JONES 159. LANDE 162 (3rd ed). SABIN 17476. (all refs) $1800. With Little-known Indian Portraits 54. [Crèvecoeur, Michel Guillaume St. Jean]: VOYAGE DANS LA HAUTE PENSYLVANIE ET DANS L’ÉTAT DE NEW-YORK... PAR UN MEMBRE ADOPTIF DE LA NATION ONÉIDA. TRADUIT ET PUBLIÉ PAR L’AUTEUR DES LETTRES D’UN CULTIVATEUR AMÉRICAIN. Paris. 1801. Three volumes. xxxi,[1], 427; xiii,[1],434; xii,409,[1]pp. plus four folding tables, four folding maps, and seven plates (four folding). Half title in each volume. Contemporary three-quarter speckled calf and marbled boards, spines gilt, gilt morocco labels. Bookplate on front pastedown of second and third volumes. Very clean and neat. A near fine set. The first edition of this little-known work by Crèvecoeur, which was not translated into English until the 1960s. A German edition appeared in 1802. Despite the wording in the title, this is an original work by Crèvecoeur, offered under the guise of a translation. The author spent twenty-four years in North America and contributed some of the finest literature of the Revolutionary era. The present work is largely devoted to the Indians of the Pennsylvania frontier in the period before the arrival of Europeans in that region. Unfairly overlooked at the time of its publication, the work presents much interesting and important information. Recent scholars (see The William & Mary Quarterly issue cited below) have placed Crèvecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer... and his short study of the Caribbean firmly in the school of the 18th-century philosophers interested in "global anthropology" and "cultural geography." The present work, focused as it is on the characteristics and customs of American Indians, would seem to be a further important contribution by Crèvecoeur to that movement. "This work is distinguished by its valuable details on the aboriginal tribes, and their gradual disappearance. No other writer has so well described the Indian great councils, or assemblies, where they deliberate on their public interests" – Sabin. A number of the plates are handsome depictions of Indian chiefs and warriors, and ancient fortifications. The frontispiece portrait in the first volume is of George Washington, to whom the Voyage... is dedicated. The well executed maps are detailed renderings of the eastern and southern United States, Niagara, and the Great Lakes region. HOWES C884. SABIN 17501. FIELD 388. MONAGHAN 503. BRINLEY SALE 3047. Christopher Iannini, "‘The Itinerant Man’: Crevecoeur’s Caribbean, Raynal’s Revolution, and the Fate of Atlantic Cosmopolitanism" in The William & Mary Quarterly, Vol. LXI, No. 2, April 2004, pp.201-34. $2750. Iroquois Dictionary 55. Cuoq, Jean André: LEXIQUE DE LA LANGUE IROQUOISE AVEC NOTES ET APPENDICES. Montreal: J. Chapleau & Fils, 1882. ix,214,[218]-238pp. (p.215 bound in at end). Original printed wrappers on boards, backed in library buckram. Ex-lib., with label on spine. Wrappers scuffed and rubbed, with substantial loss to wrapper text. Internally clean. A good copy. First edition of Father Cuoq’s dictionary of the Iroquois tongue. Cuoq (1821-98) was a highly experienced missionary among the Algonquin and Iroquois speaking natives. He mastered several dialects and related languages and is a great name among missionary linguistic scholars. Pilling notes that the "Addimenta" section, pp.[218]-238 (pp.218-233 numbered even on rectos, odd on versos; there is no p.234), were issued in August 1883 to provide "explanations of doubtful points in the original publication and answers to queries received from correspondents" (Pilling, Iroquoian). Not in Vancil. PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 956. PILLING, IROQUOIAN, pp.51-52. AYER INDIAN LINGUISTICS (MOHAWK) 47. SIEBERT SALE 89. $1500. 56. Cutler, Jervis: A TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE OF OHIO, INDIANA TERRITORY, AND LOUISIANA. COMPREHENDING THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS, AND THEIR PRINCIPAL TRIBUTARY STREAMS.... Boston. 1812. 219pp. plus five woodcut plates. Contemporary calf, neatly rebacked, original leather label and endpapers preserved. Bit rubbed, contemporary ownership signature on titlepage, heavily foxed. Margin of last leaf of text repaired with slight loss of text, else a sound copy. Lacks the errata leaf. Despite the title, the better part of this work is devoted to describing the trans-Mississippi West. The most interesting section is Charles Le Raye’s journal of his experiences from 1801 to 1803 as a captive of the Sioux, and his travels to the Rocky Mountains. There is also an essay on Indian tribes between the Mississippi and the Rockies, a description of the Red River country, and the descriptions of Ohio and Indiana referred to in the title. The plates include one of the first views of Cincinnati and two interesting illustrations of Flathead Indians. "One of the most important of Western narratives, and the earliest authentic relation of a captivity among the Sioux" – Eberstadt. WAGNER-CAMP 10. FIELD 395. GRAFF 963. CLARK II:14. HOWES C984, "b." AYER 56. VAUGHAN 82. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 25204. STREETER SALE 1775. EBERSTADT 105: 104. SABIN 18170. $2250. |
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