HENNEPIN, Louis (1640-1704)

Description de la Louisiane and Nouvelle decouverte d'un tres grand pays situe dans l'Amerique

Paris: Chez la Veuve Sebastien Hure, 1683. 12mo. (6 1/16 x 3 9/16 inches). (10), 312 pp., 107 pp. Folding engraved map, woodcut headpieces.

Contemporary French mottled calf, covers with a central gilt royal supralibros, red speckled edges, neatly rebacked preserving original spine and endpapers. Housed within a dark blue cloth chemise and full morocco box

First edition of Hennepin’s first work, giving the earliest printed account of Louisiana and including the first description of Niagara Falls.

In 1675, Father Louis Hennepin sailed to New France with a Recollect mission aboard the same ship as René Robert Cavelier de La Salle. From Quebec, he carried out missionary work among the Iroquois and then, in 1678, joined La Salle's expedition as chaplain. Hennepin founded Fort Tonti on the Niagara River near present-day Buffalo as part of the advance party, and it was here that he wrote the first description of Niagara Falls. With La Salle, Hennepin continued by way of Lake Huron, Green Bay, Lake Michigan, and the St. Joseph River to the Illinois River, helping to establish Fort Crèvecur (opposite present-day Peoria, Illinois). Hennepin descended the Illinois River to its confluence with the Mississippi, then ascended the Mississippi as far as present-day Minneapolis. He and two others were captured by the Sioux in 1680 and accompanied them on several hunting expeditions. During one of these, he became the first European to encounter the Falls of St. Anthony. Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, eventually secured his release, and Hennepin returned to the mission of St. Francis Xavier on Green Bay. He returned to France in 1682 and published this work the following year. The work is considered a primary work of New York exploration, and a foundational map of American cartography. The first book by the famous Recollect missionary and explorer, Father Louis Hennepin, and a foundational work of Canadiana and Americana, particularly for the Great Lakes region. Unlike some of Hennepin's later works, the truthfulness of his narrative herein is fully accepted by historians (Reese). Very rare with the map in the first state, entitled Carte de la Nouvelle France, showing the Mississippi River not fully extending to the Gulf of Mexico, but with a faint dotted line indicating the surmised course of the lower Mississippi. In the 1698 edition, France is replaced with Monde in the title, and the Mississippi fully extends to the Gulf.

Alden & Landis 683/96; Ayer 127; Bell H-114; Clements One Hundred Michigan Rarities 5; Graff 1858 (first issue); Greenly 8; Harrisse NF 150; Howes H-415; Howgego H-62; Jones 330; Reese, Celebration of My Country 16; Sabin 31347; Schwartz & Ehrenberg p.130; Staton & Tremaine/TPL 81; Streeter sale I:102; Streit II:2721; Vail 222; Wheat Mapping the Transmississippi West 62. Not in Lande.

Item #42214

Price: $58,000.00