$11,250
Philadelphia: C. and A. Conrad, 1810. 8vo, contemporary calf rebacked, gilt-lettered red leather spine label. Complete with frontispiece portrait, 11 unnumbered pages of meteorological observations, three fold-out tables, six maps (five fold-out) and appendices. First edition, and only edition with the appendices, of "the first government exploration of the Southwest." (Howes) Pike and his expedition party set forth from St. Louis, having been sent to explore the western and southern portions of the Louisiana Purchase and contact the Native American peoples who lived there. The expedition followed the Republican River toward Nebraska and through the Great Plains, and then struck south to the Arkansas River, which Pike followed upstream to its source, spotting his namesake, "Pike's Peak" and reaching the Royal Gorge at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They were captured by the Spanish at the Rio Grande in Southern Colorado and, with his travels as a prisoner through New Mexico and his subsequent travels upon release through Texas, his journals mark "the beginning of serious American interest in Texas" (Basic Texas Books) and "the first, in English, for Texas as a whole." (Tate) Some light brownspotting; very light edgewear to boards; maps with light offsetting; mended tear to map of New Spain; a few stray edge tears.
Auctioneer:
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers
Date:
2013-04-10
