Voyages chez differentes nations sauvages de l'Amérique septentrionale ; renfermant des détails curieux sur les moeurs, usages, cérémonies religieuses, le système militaire, &c. des Cahnuagas, des indiens des Cinq & Six Nations, Mohawks, Connecedagas, Iroquois, &c. des indiens Chippeways, & autres sauvages de divers tribus, sur leurs langues, les pays qu'ils habitent, ainsi que sur le commerce de pelleteries & fourrures qui se fait chez ces peuples avec Un état exact des postes situés sur le fleuve S. Laurent, le lac Ontario, &c; &c. Traduits de langlois, avec des notes & additions intéressantes, par J.B.L.J. Billecocq, citoyen français

First edition of the French translation and notes prepared by Billecocq (cf. Sabin, 41879; Leclerc, 943; Field, 947; Howes, 443; Staton-Trenlaine, Bibliogr. of Canadiana, 597 for the original edition).

Half mottled calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt tools, brown shagreen title-piece, marbled paper boards slightly darkened and faded at the edges, red edges; modern binding.

Stamp on the half-title, a light marginal dampstain affecting the outer margins of the final leaves.

Illustrated with a folding copper-engraved map by P. F. Tardieu, “Des pays situés à l'ouest du Canada”.

“The interest of the work lies in the detailed and relatively objective descriptions it provides of Indigenous life (…) The work is also of great value for its extensive lists of terms used by the Inuit, the Agniers, the Algonquins, the Mohegans, the Chaouanons and the Saulteaux.” Cf. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, IV, pp. 524–525.

John Long, a London-born fur trader (c. 1768–1791), reached Montreal in 1768 and “spent the next seven years in the region, becoming familiar with the fur trade (…) During the early years of the American Revolution, he accompanied Indigenous parties on reconnaissance missions and took part in several engagements against the invaders around Montreal”.

In 1777 he was hired by a merchant “who entrusted him with leading a party of traders bound for the region north of Lake Superior. At Pays Plat (near the mouth of the Nipigon River, Ontario), he was adopted by the Saulteaux chief Madjeckewiss. The rites of adoption entailed physical suffering that the traders endured in view of the commercial advantages they expected to gain thereafter”. For ten years Long organised several trading expeditions in Canada, which he left for England for good in 1787.