258 - [Americana]. HENNEPIN, Louis de.

[Americana]. HENNEPIN, Louis de. New Discovery of a Very Large Country Located in America Utrecht: Guillaume Broedelet, 1697. In-12, (34) ff. (title page, dedication, notice, and tables), (1)-506 pp. with generous margins (approx. 2.5 cm on the sides and 1 cm at the top), title page and frontispiece, 2 fold-out views, 2 large engraved maps. Fine, finely speckled, polished fawn calfskin of the period; spine with raised bands decorated with gilt panels and scrolls; title and volume number (the work is complete in this single volume) gilt; gilt scrolls on the edges; edges speckled with red; endpapers of whirl paper (a 1-cm split in the fold at the margins on 2 plates; 2 folds slightly stuck to the maps; very slight wear on the corners and lower edges; one rounded corner; minor, insignificant scuffing on the covers; a few scattered foxing spots). A sought-after first edition of the account of the second part of Hennepin’s travels in what are now the United States and Canada. A Récollet (Franciscan) missionary and explorer of Belgian origin, Louis Hennepin or de Hennepin (1626–1704) traveled and lived on the North American continent. He is considered the discoverer and explorer of the Mississippi River alongside the Frenchman Cavelier de La Salle, whom he accompanied in 1679; and the first to describe Niagara Falls (Lande, 423). His accounts of New France and Louisiana, in particular, became standard reference works. A fine copy in its period binding. Our copy features the fold-out etching considered to be the first engraved and published depiction of Niagara Falls. Frontispiece title page with illustrations, etched and bound before the title page. Complete with its two large fold-out maps: “Map (...) between New Mexico and the Arctic Ocean showing the course of the great river...” (from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico) and the large general map of all of North America, from the equator to the Arctic. Notably, it still depicted California as an island, included the “Land of Iesso ” (islands north of Japan) in the northwest, depicts Lake Apalache in the southeast, includes Eldorado in South America, and suggests the existence of a Northwest Passage. It remains best known for its remarkable depiction of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. The second plate depicts a large woolly bison in its natural habitat alongside various other animals. Exiled in England, Hennepin dedicated his work to William III (whose coat of arms is engraved in the cartouches of the maps). A handwritten marginal note from that period comments on the text, referring to the tragic death of Cavelier de La Salle in 1687 (f. 10 of the Dedication). Field, 685. Lande, 423. Sabin, 31349.