Dumont, George Marie | The Siebert copy

Dumont, George Marie

Memoires historiques sur la Louisiane. Paris: J.B. Bauche, 1753

2 volumes, 8o (174 x 113 mm, uncut). Half titles and 7 engraved folding maps and plates; some dampstaining in upper margin at beginning of second volume. Contemporary marbled boards, rebacked in modern calf. 

First edition

Compiled from the manuscript of Dumont de Montigny, a French officer who served for twenty-five years in the colony. The work contains the important account of the Yazoo Indian explorer, Moncachtapé—the first published narrative of an overland trip up the Missouri River to the Pacific Northwest Coast.

"Dumont served 25 years as an officer and his memoirs cover the period from La Salle's death in 1687 down to 1740. The first volume treats of the natural history of the country and the manners of its natives. The second volume contains an historical narrative of the vast territory then known as Louisiana, with a description of the founding of New Orleans; the wars with the various tribes; also the earliest reliable account of the country watered by the Upper Mississippi and Missouri" (Eberstadt 123:25)

PROVENANCE

Frank T. Siebert (Sotheby's New York, 28 October 1999, lot 674)

REFERENCE

Field 463; Howes L250; Streeter sale 1:125; Graff 1173; Rader 1233; Sabin 9605