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First edition in English of the author's La decouverte des sources du Mississippi (1824), 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. lxxvi, 472-[473]; [ii], 545; portrait frontis., 2 engraved folding plans, large folding map of the length of the Mississippi, and 3 engraved plates for Indian ornaments; ex-library copy with usual markings, covers and spine scuffed, joints rubbed and cracked, upper board loose, speckled edges; fair in contemporary tan mottled calf, black morocco labels on spines. Volume I contains an account of the author's travels in England, Germany, France and Italy. Sabin 4605 (erroneously calling for only 1 plan): "The author accompanied Major Long in his second expedition, who remarks: An Italian whom we met at Fort St. Anthony [i.e. Fort Snelling] attached himself to the expedition, and accompanied us to Pembina. He has recently published a book which we notice merely on account of the fictions and misrepresentations which it contains. The Revue encyclopedique (1826) criticized the work severely, and doubted the discovery. The author replied in a Lettre sur la decouverte d'un manuscript mexicain, which was printed.in the English edition of his Pilgrimage." Howes B-338; Clark II, 182; Wagner-Camp 26a.2; Pilling, Algonquin, p. 42; Field 111: Volume II is almost entirely devoted to the author's travels among the Northwestern Indians, of whom he gives some novel particulars. The narrations of what he witnessed are tinged with the peculiar glow of the author's temperament. Beltrami must have moved in a gigantic world, if he saw external objects through the same media with which he viewed his own person and accomplishments.". Seller Inventory # 12269
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