Journal of Andrew Ellicott, Late Commissioner
Item #73079
ELLICOTT, Andrew. The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, Late Commissioner on Behalf of the United States during Part of the Year 1796, the Years 1797, 1798, 1799, and Part of the Year 1800: for Determining the Boundary between the United States and the Possessions of his Catholic Majesty in America, Containing Occasional Remarks on the Situation, Soil, Rivers, Natural Productions, and Diseases of the Different Countries on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Gulf of Mexico ... Philadelphia: Printed by William Fry, 1814. 4to (10 x 7 3/4 inches). vii,299,151pp. 14 engraved folding maps and charts. Contemporary 3/4 black morocco and marbled boards, spine gilt. Small amount of light scattered foxing, boards rubbed, light rubbing to spine ends, corners worn, else very good. HOWES E-94, "aa." Graff 1230 (1803 ed.). Sabin 22217. Second issue composed of the sheets of the 1803 edition with a tipped in title page dated 1814. Ellicott's was the first thorough American survey of West Florida, the lower Mississippi and Gulf regions. His report influenced the eventual U.S. acquisition of the area. Andrew Ellicott came from a talented Quaker family with mills in Pennsylvania and Maryland. "No Quaker himself, he served in the Revolution. He was best known as a surveyor, having had a hand in the boundaries of New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and South Carolina; and he surveyed the District of Columbia. Pursuant to the treaty of San Lorenzo el Real, 1795, he was appointed by George Washington as United States commissioner for drawing the boundary between the United States and the Spanish Floridas. "Ellicott's Journal is the product of this commission. The narrative part of it is no journal at all, but a carefully composed work written in 1802.... The appendix is a record of meteorological, astronomical, and chronometrical observations from the mouth of the Ohio (late 1796) down the Mississippi, and along the boundary and Gulf Coast to the mouth of St. Mary's (early 1800). It also lists and describes the instruments used in running the line....Ellicott's remarks on the places he visited... are useful as are the temperatures and other scientific data; incidental description... botanical lists; descriptions of the Florida Keys; practical advice on navigating the Mississippi; and remarks on the soil of the Mississippi Territory and the Florid.
Price: $6,500.00