Tenesles, Nicola, and Joseph Barratt:

$1,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

THE INDIAN OF NEW-ENGLAND, AND THE NORTH-EASTERN PROVINCES; A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF AN INDIAN HUNTER, ANCIENT TRADITIONS RELATING TO THE ETCHEMIN ... According to the titlepage, this work is "derived from Nicola Tenesles. By a citizen of Middletown, Conn." That citizen signed the preface with the initials, "J.B.," and scholarship credits Joseph Barratt as being "J.B." He provides a brief biography of Tenesles, who at the time of composition was fifty-seven years old and a native speaker of Etchemin (i.e. Passamaquoddy) and Micmac. In addition to explanations of society and social customs, Tenesles tells of the Etchemins's "modes of life, fishing, hunting, &c.," and gives "vocabularies in the Indian and English, giving the names of the animals, birds, and fish; the most complete that has been given for New-England, in the languages of the Etchemin and Micmacs...." Pages 15-23 contain a "Key to the Indian language of New-England," which had appeared as a separate publication the previous year. That edition of 500 was quickly exhausted, and so this new work, incorporating and expanding on the earlier one, was published."In some copies of the first edition listed, the words 'Derived from Nicola Tenesles. By a Citizen of Middletown, Conn.' on the title, are covered with a printed slip reading 'By Joseph Barratt, M.D. Member of several learned societies,' as in the later issues" - Sabin.

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