Memoire Ou Cou-D'Oeil Rapide Sur Mes Diferens Voyages et Mon Sejour
Item #62539
MILFORT, Louis. Memoire Ou Cou-D'Oeil Rapide Sur Mes Diferens Voyages et Mon Sejour Dans La Nation Creck. Paris: de l'imprimerie de Giguet et Michaud, 1802. [4],331,[1]pp. Half title. Original boards, expertly rebacked to style, morocco label. Occasional marginal dampstaining, light scattered foxing, small, darker, stain in margin of first few leaves. Signed by Milfort on the verso of the title (as usual with this book). Signed by Milfort on a statement of authenticity on the verso of the titlepage, as in all copies. A remarkable account of a Frenchman's travels and adventures among the Creek Indians in the Mississippi Valley in the late 1770s and early 1780s. Some of the details in this narrative are sufficiently extraordinary that various commentators have questioned Milfort's veracity. "There are, however, corroborative circumstances which confirm his statements, and induce us to give a fair degree of credence to his narrative. At the time of his arrival among the Creeks, a half-breed named McGillivray, had obtained so great an influence over them by his talent for organization, that he had actually acquired the rank of head chief. Milfort was received with great cordiality; married his Indian sister, and in a short time was made commander of the warriors of the nation. He led them against both the Spaniards and the Americans, and by his aid the Indians defeated the forces of each in several skirmishes" - Field. "The truth is that Milfort was a hopeless liar; and as a result his book is one of the most interesting and curious books of French travel in America in the eighteenth century...His book is often hostile to the colonists. Certain descriptions of life among the Indians and frontiersmen are interesting. But what confidence can be placed in a man who was capable of describing how he, in command of six thousand Indians, had defeated George Rogers Clark and an army of ten thousand regulars!" - Monaghan. "It would take more time than I have so far been able to give to guess whether or not it is fiction" - Streeter. This book is dedicated to Napoleon; Milfort signs himself: "Tastanegy ou grand Chef de guerre de la nation Creck." The Siebert copy in 1999 was the first to have appeared at auction since the Streeter sale in 1967. HOWES M599, "b." SABIN 48949. FIELD 1065. SERVIES 761. ECHEVERRIA & WILKIE 802/37. GRAFF 2.
Price: $6,000.00