Beschreibung:

CHAMPLAIN, Samuel de (1567-1635). Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain Xaintongeois, Capitaine ordinaire pour le Roy, en la marine. Divisez en deux livres. Ou, Journal tres-fidele des observations faites és descouvertures de la Nouvelle France . Paris: Jean Berjon, 1613.
CHAMPLAIN, Samuel de (1567-1635). Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain Xaintongeois, Capitaine ordinaire pour le Roy, en la marine. Divisez en deux livres. Ou, Journal tres-fidele des observations faites és descouvertures de la Nouvelle France . Paris: Jean Berjon, 1613. Two parts in one, 4° (219 x 163 mm). 8 folding maps including “Carte geographique de la nouvelle franse faictte par le sieur de Champlain” (447 x 775 mm sheet, pale dampstain within image, creasing and holes along folds affecting some image and text) and "Carte geographique de la nouvelle franse en son vray mondia" (308 x 388 mm sheet, second state, two short marginal tears just crossing text or image, a few small creases/holes along folds), 3 folding plates, 13 copper engravings in the text, one woodcut diagram, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials (map facing p. 176 with small wormhole). (Lacking the final leaf of the Table [Tt1], some very pale dampstaining in lower and upper margins, marginal tears on B1, F1, H3 crossing text, small paper flaw on H3 just touching image border, tiny wormtrack in lower margin of gatherings R-S and Ee-Ff and upper margins of Ss-end, the latter just touching some letters, small pale stains on X4-Y1, Ii1, Nn1-2, and Qq3, the last with small associated hole affecting a few letters.) Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties (a few stains); quarter brown morocco slipcase. FIRST EDITION OF THE SECOND PUBLISHED ACCOUNT OF CHAMPLAIN'S VOYAGES, containing the relations of four voyages to America made between 1604 and 1613. "The volume deals very fully with the natural history of the country, its soil and products, and is especially minute in its description of the manners, customs, and habits of the Indians. In this edition the text is much fuller than in that of 1632..." (Church). WITH THE VERY SCARCE LARGE-SCALE MAP OF NEW FRANCE: “Although often lacking from the book, the map is the first to indicate a chain of Great Lakes, Lake Champlain and Montreal… The work was part of the overall plan to gain as much support as possible for the fledgling colony. It is interesting to note that Champlain relies only on his own knowledge and that of the native Indians for his geography. Other European sources that he had not substantiated he depicted with honesty and care. Particularly noticeable are the northern shore of the Gilf of St. Lawrence and the Maritimes marked with the legend L’auteur na point encore recognu sette coste . Montreal is shown just a year after Champlain set up a trading post there. However, it was not to be permanently occupied until 1642. The area further upriver is derived from Indian sources. Lake Ontario, depicted quite accurately, is marked Lac Contenant 15 Iourees des canaux des sauuages . At the western end of the lake is sault de au , the first reference on a printed map to Niagara Falls” (Burden). The smaller map is nearly as scarce, and important. This map records the discovery by Henry Hudson of the bay named after him. This map has both latitude and longitude, “something virtually never attempted before on a North American map of such detail. Champlain’s acute awareness of the deviation of the compass enables him to portray the St. Lawrence River in its more correct south-west to north-east flow rather than the more usual west to east…” (Burden). VERY SCARCE: according to online databases, only two complete copies and three incomplete copies have sold at auction in the last thirty years. Alden & Landis 613/60; Burden 160-161, 166-181; Church 360; JCB (3) II:93; Kershaw, pp.62-5; Lande 116; Sabin 11835; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, pp. 85-8; Streeter sale VI:3630.