Beschreibung:

Umstaendliche Geographische Beschreibung Der zu allerletzt erfundenen Provintz Pensylvaniae, In denen End-Graentzen Americae In der West-Welt gelegen Durch Franciscum Danielum Pastorium, J. V. Lic. und Friedens Richtern daselbsten. Worbey angehencket sind einige notable Begebenheiten und Bericht-Schreiben an dessen Herren Vattern Melchiorum Adamum Pastorium. Und andere gute Freunde.
Frankfort and Leipzig: Andreas Otto, 1700. [1], [10], 140 pp., small 8vo (153 x 92 mm). Modern brown crushed morocco. scarce first edition of an important early source on the history of pennsylvania, written by the founder of germantown. Pastorius, born in Germany in 1651, formed an acquaintance with William Penn, became a Quaker and helped organize the Frankfort Land Company. Securing 15,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, he emigrated in 1683 and soon thereafter layed out Germantown, of which he was the principal founder. This epistolary work includes letters written from Pennsylvania to his father describing the region, including its form of government and providing advice to emigrants. In the rear of the work is a printing in German of William Penn’s Letter to the Committee of the Free Society of Traders. Pastorius, Winsor writes, was “the most active and intelligent of the first German settlers” and his work “is of great interest, as it contains the views of one thoroughly identified with the German movement to America” (Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America). The work is sometimes found bound with a German edition of Gabriel Thomas’s promotional tract, though that is not the case here. Alden & Landis 700/212; Howes P115 “b”; Sabin 59028; Winsor III: 502.