Beschreibung:

Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada, faits par le Sr Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la Marine du Ponant, & toutes les Descouvertes qu'il a faites en ce pais depuis l'an 1603. Iusques en I'am 1629.
Paris: chez Louis Sevestre, 1632. 4to (228 x 163mm). 3 parts in one volume. With the rare double sheet engraved map “Carte De La Nouvelle France 1632" (549 x 858 mm) and 6 engravings in the text, one large woodcut map and one woodcut text diagram, with numerous woodcut head-pieces and initials. 17th century calf , ruled in gilt, with gilt arms of Claude Du Sauzay, Seigneur de Varennes and Conseiller du Roi on covers (Olivier 2383), spine in five compartments with raised bands, gilt-titled in the second, gilt double rule and device in remaining compartments. Condition : some foxing and browning, scattered light spotting, faint dampstains to upper margins of most leaves, extending into text of approximately 30, some small stains on G4-H3 of part I obscuring up to 7 letters, marginal repairs to T4 of part I and G3 of part II, the latter affecting the text with 9 letters supplied in facsimile, 3 tiny wormholes to Z1 & 2 of part II, affecting 10 letters, the folding map with a 3-inch closed tear at the mount edge and one long but unobtrusive repaired tear across the top half, a little light spotting; covers lightly skinned, joints rubbed, ends of raised bands exposed, inner hinges weak. Provenance : Claude du Sauzay, Seigneur de Varennes (binding); two largely effaced 19th-century French bookplates; Pierre S. Du Pont III; his sale, Christie's New York, 8 October, 1991, lot 39. Acquisition : purchased from Librairie Thomas-Scheler, (1998), FF450,000 ($76,272). the du pont copy of the second issue, a primary work encouraging the colonization of new france, with the rare folding map, the first to depict the entire great lakes chain and the first collected edition of champlain's voyages. This issue has the cancelled leaves D2-3 replacing the offensive passage regarding Richelieu. The work was published to promote the claims on New France in Louis XIII's court at a critical time, as France was seeking to legitimize its claims in North America. It describes all of the preceding French expeditions as well as Champlain’s own nine voyages to the New World, with a history of Canada from 1619 to 1632 and a treatise on navigation (bound in at the end in this copy). “This work gives us the first accurate accounts we have of the Indians of the interior of the present State of New York … The most remarkable event in Indian history was caused by Champlain’s first visit to the shores of the lake bearing his name. In a conflict between the two named races of savages, he gave the victory to his friends the Abnaquis, by the use of his musket. The Iroquois never forgave the injury, and thousands of Frenchmen were slaughtered to avenge it. The Six Nations always fought with the English against their enemies, and twice nearly destroyed the French colonies with their warriors alone” (Field 268, Sevestre imprint). The map covers the same territory as Champlain's earlier cartographic landmark of 1616, but in much more exact detail in land features. Fischer believes the change in focus is primarily away from the map as a sea chart for naviagation, with more emphasis placed on the land to encourage colonization, with French settlements and missions all carefully marked. The present map extends as far south as the Virginia colonies. Here the Hudson is called "Riuere des trettes" and Long Island "Isle de l'Ascension." European Americana 632/22; Burden 237; Church 420; Field 268 (Silvestre imprint); Fischer. Champlain's Dream ; Harrisse 51; Lande 118 (map in facsimile); Streeter sale VI:3621.