Salas, Luis

Noticias de la Provinicia de Californias en tres Cartas de un Sacerdote Religioso Hijo del Real Convento de Predicadores de Valencia a un Amigo Suyo. Valencia: Per los Hermanos de Orga, 1794



3 parts in one volume, 8vo (5 7/8 x 3 3/4 in.; 150 x 95 mm). Each part with letterpress title, 2 folding tables; clean tears in tables mended, quire F in second part lightly browned, a few small spots and smudges on first title. Contemporary mottled calf, spine richly gilt, red edges, red half-morocco slipcase, gilt-stamped title on spine; endpapers renewed, a few worm punctures in upper joint, some wear at edges and extremities.

Cowen (1914), p. 198; Sabin 75765; Wagner, Spanish Southwest 177

First edition, "excessively rare" (Cowan).

Sales (1745–1807) was a Dominican who accompanied Father Yriarte to Baja California after the Franciscans were given charge of Alta California. Near the end of his stay, he wrote three letters to an unnamed friend in Valencia, which are here published. The publication was said to have displeased the authorities accounting for its scarcity.

The letters are largely devoted to events after the expulsion of the Jesuits, with descriptions of the country, the natives, the fauna, and the trials of the missionaries. There is a detailed account of the division of the province between the two mendicant orders, and a description of the Nootka expedition under Martinez, the capture of Captain James Colnett (July 1789), and events while there. As the only contemporary book by a Dominican on that Order's occupation of Baja California, Sales' work is of great historical importance.

A very handsome copy; no copy has appeared at auction since 1977.