Lot 16: Champlain, Samuel de

Voyages et descouvertes faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis l'année 1615 iusques à la fin de l'année 1618. Paris: Claude Collet, 1620 8vo (6 7/8 x 4 1/4 in.; 175 x 107 mm). Additional engraved emblematic title-page dated 1619, woodcut device on letterpress title, decorative woodcut initials, woodcut and typographic head- and tail-pieces, 2 folding engraved plates, 4 full-page engraved illustrations, with terminal blanks V7-8; a few tiny wormholes and tracks in lower margin unobtrusively touching the edges of the engravings and a single letter on five or six text pages, first folding plate just shaved at fore-edge, small dampstain to lower margin of engraved title, gathering B with traces of staining, gathering V lightly browned. Contemporary vellum over stiff boards, overlapping fore-edges, plain endpapers, blue-sprinkled edges; minor abrasion to rear cover, lightly soiled.

European Americana 620/45; Church 378; Harrisse, Nouvelle France 33; Sabin 11837; cf. Bell, Jesuit Relations 235; Field 67

First edition, second issue with the date of the letterpress title changed from 1619 to 1620. The third of Champlain's four publications recounting his exploration and settlement of Canada. Voyages et descouvertes is arguably the scarcest of Champlain's works; the Lande Collection had only the second edition of 1627, and none of the four copies of the first edition recorded in American Book Prices Current since 1971 (including the Siebert and Streeter copies) was in a contemporary binding. Justin Winsor's abstract of this work was first quoted in the Church catalogue and the subsequent century has not yielded a better summary: "The present volume continues his observations in New France from his return [from France] in 1615. It describes his introduction of the Recollect Fathers as missionaries to the Indians, his exploration of the Ottawa, Lake Nipissing, Lake Huron and Ontario; the attack on the Iroquois fort in the State of New York; his winter among the Hurons; and it contains his incomparable essay on the Hurons and other neighboring tribes. It has Brûlé's narrative of his experiences among the savages on the southern borders of the State of New York, near the Pennsylvania line, and that of events which occurred in the settlement at Quebec" (Narrative and Critical History of America, IV:132). The fine, unsigned engravings depict Champlain's attack on an Iroquois fort, a native deer hunt, male and female Indian costumes, an Indian dance, and a burial ceremony. A very good copy, in essentially as-issued condition.