Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia
Item #80125
BARTRAM, William. Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscolgulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. London: J. Johnson, 1792. 1st English ed. 8vo. xxiv,520,[12]pp. Folding map, plus all seven plates (including one folding plate) as issued, (5 of plants and 2 of turtles). A very good copy in full contemporary calf, with leather spine label. Housed in a custom morocco-backed cloth folding box. HOWES B-223, "b": "A work of high character well meriting its high esteem." De Renne I:250. Reese, Federal Hundred 33. Sabin 3870. An important work on Southern exploration and natural history, with much on the Cherokee and Creek Indians. Bartram's travels cover the period from April, 1773, to January, 1778. He operated from Savannah and Charleston, making numerous trips throughout the region. Among his stops were Augusta, Georgia, where he attended a congress of white traders with Creeks and Cherokees, Whatoga in East Tennessee, site of a Cherokee festival, Pensacola, Baton Rouge, and Mobile. An eye ailment caused him to cut short his Southern tour and return to Philadelphia. The frontispiece is by the author. "Since Bartram was a naturalist, his account of his travels includes details of the flora and fauna and other natural phenomena. His descriptions and comparative data are of scientific value. His account is essentially factual, with occasional reflections on the wonders of nature and the manifestations of the Supreme Being through nature. Bartram was keenly interested in Indian life and customs. He was a careful observer, and in his written record he always distinguished between what he actually saw and what he was told by others. Since most of his journeys were through the wilderness, there is a minimum of material on the white settlers, who, in any case, were only of casual interest to him."-Clark I, 197. "The classic of southern natural history and exploration, with much on the southern Indian tribes. Bartram's account of the remote frontier, of the plantations, trading posts, and Indian villages at the end of the eighteenth century is unrivaled."- Streeter II, 1088. "Although more especially a naturalist, [Bartram] neglected nothing which would add to the common stock of human knowledge. He not only offers us pictures of.
Price: $7,500.00