Lahontan, Louis Armand, Baron de:

$7,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

NOUVEAUX VOYAGES DE MR. LE BARON DE LAHONTAN, DANS L'AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE. [with:] MEMOIRES DE L'AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE, OU LA SUITE DES ... First edition, third issue with the titlepages all in black and the globe vignette, with the maps re-engraved and improved. This is cartographically the best edition. Lahontan's narrative is a curious blending of fact and fantasy. His account of his travels in the Great Lakes region is one of the most important travel narratives of the day, but his claims to having travelled west of the Mississippi are highly doubtful; however, his assertions had great impact on geographers of the time, who adopted much of his imaginary geography. The most notable map in the book is the "Carte de la Riviere Longue," depicting an imaginary river extending westward from Lake Superior, a concept which confused generations of cartographers. The "Carte General de Canada" is also considerably confused geographically. The second volume also contains the "Dictionaire de la Langue des Sauvages." The work remains a classic voyage, even if partially imaginary, and is is a major source for the Huron and other tribes on the Great Lakes, written by a man "of more than ordinary learning and intelligence" (Sabin)."Although much of the work has been condemned as over-imaginative, it did influence the subsequent growth of primitivism in France and England, as reflected in the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, and others. For example, he tells of a tribe

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