HISTOIRE DE LA LOUISIANE..

Pari: Chez de Bure [et al], 1758. Three volumes. xvi,358; 441; 451,[3]pp., plus forty engraved plates, two folding maps, folding plan, and errata. Half title in each volume. 16mo. Contemporary mottled calf, spines richly gilt. A fine, fresh set. One of the most useful contemporary authorities on French Louisiana, based on the author's sixteen-year residence there. Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to take an edition of the book on their expedition. Le Page du Pratz affords a great deal of useful information on the Natchez and other Mississippi tribes, and his work as a whole has been the basis for many later studies of the period. "...Valuable for showing French claims to southern territory east of the Mississippi and for particulars concerning Indian nations there" - Howes. Of special interest is a short account of Louis de St. Denis' expedition to New Mexico in 1715. "...A curious mixture of history, travel narrative, tall stories, and reminiscences...touch[ing] upon almost every phase of Louisiana in [the author's] time..." - Clark. There is a folding plan of New Orleans and a "Carte de la Louisiane" which shows a large eastward-flowing Missouri. SIEBERT SALE 675 (this copy). HOWES L266, "aa." CLARK I:75. GRAFF 2462. RADER 2219. RAINES, p.73. SABIN 40122. STREETER SALE 127. FIELD 910. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 158. REESE, BEST OF THE WEST 8.