Pittman, Philip:

$30,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

THE PRESENT STATE OF THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI; WITH A GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THAT RIVER.... The Astor Library copy of the most authoritative work in English on the Mississippi Valley on the eve of the Revolution. Philip Pittman was an explorer and surveyor in the Illinois country who travelled the length of the Mississippi. He spent 1763 and 1764 in West Florida and was in Illinois from 1765 to 1768. The book describes the French villages he found there, the country along the Mississippi River, and the commerce of the region. Pittman also particularly notes the close relationship French and Canadian settlers in the Illinois region have with indigenous groups:"The first white inhabitants of the Illinois came from Canada; some brought wives and families with them, others married Indian women in those countries; there is still a continual intercourse between them and the Canadians. The men of these countries...are as well acquainted with the woods, as the Indians; most of them have some knowledge of the dialects of the neighbouring Indians and much affect their manners. The price of labour in general is very high, as most of the young men rather chuse to hunt and trade amongst the Indians, than apply to agriculture or become handicrafts."The last forty pages of the book are dedicated to a parallel printing in English and French of the grievances and requests laid before France by colonists of Louisiana, in response to restrictive French trading regulation

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