Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie et dans l'état de New-York, par un membre adoptif de la nation Oneida

CREVECOEUR Michel Guillaume Saint Jean
Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie et dans l'état de New-York, par un membre adoptif de la nation Oneida
De l'imprimerie de Crapelet, Paris 1801 (An IX), In-8 (13 x 20 cm), xxxj (1) 467 pp. et xiij (1) 434 pp. et xij, 409 pp. (1), old half-vellum
First edition illustrated with 11 paper boards and 4 charts, of which 7 can be folded out, with one big map of Northern United States, one of the Southern part, several charts of cataract in Nigeria, a warrior in the Oneida nation, the portrait of Washington featured in a medallion… Dedicatory epistle to George Washington.
Old half-vellum binding with small corners. Smooth jansenist spine. Title pieces in red-orange sheep. Volume number labels with tail pieces. Slight damp stains on the left corner, in the margin of the half-title and the frontispiece of tome I. Rubbed covers. Beautiful copy, very well preserved.
Although the foreword of the translator tells the discovery of a manuscript found in a shipwreck, the author is indeed Michel Crevecoeur, who certainly used this literary subterfuge to prevent the attacks against his book and increase the veracity of his travel narrative. Therefore, this is not a translation but an original work, to be considered as following the Lettres d'un cultivateur. The volume includes countless descriptions of Indians, their way of life, the different tribes. Moreover, no book contains as much information and real material on Indians. Numerous instructive and useful notes on fauna and flora, New-York, resources and geography, and the collection is one of the most priceless testimony for the history of the United States. Moreover, the narrative includes different testimonies to other states such as Delaware, Ohio, and Florida.;
Michel Crevecoeur settled in the United States in 1754, founded a farm (the Lettres d'un cultivateur describe the story) ransacked by the English during the Independence war. Crevecoeur, who was arrested and subsequently released, went back to France then returned to the USA in 1783.