Rare and First Edition Books from Buckingham Books

Dealer in Rare and First-Edition Books:  Western Americana; Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction

Journal Of The Sufferings And Hardships Of Capt. Parker H. French's Overland Expedition To California, Which Left New York City, May 13th, 1850, And Arrived At San Francisco, Dec. 14 WILLIAM MILES

Journal Of The Sufferings And Hardships Of Capt. Parker H. French's Overland Expedition To California, Which Left New York City, May 13th, 1850, And Arrived At San Francisco, Dec. 14

WILLIAM MILES

Other works by WILLIAM MILES

Publication: The Cadmus Book Shop, 1916, New York

Reprint edition of the rare 1851 original edition. Limited to 250 copies. Pamphlet sewn into a buckram binder with titles stamped in gilt on the front cover and with the bookplate of noted Western American collector W. J. Holliday affixed to the front pastedown sheet, 26 pp. Record of a very uncommon overland route to California "by way of New Orleans, Lavacca and San Antonia, Texas, El Paso, on the Rio Grande, the river Gila to San Diego on the Pacific, and landed at San Francisco, December 14." French was the leader of an infamous and fraudulent gold rush expedition. He placed ads in the newspapers, and had flyers printed describing his plan to lead an expedition to the gold fields of California for a fee of $250. Initially, about 100 men signed on, sailing in late April for Port Lavaca via Havana, New Orleans, and Galveston. French remained behind to sign up more men and put an associate in charge of the group. Upon their arrival in Port Lavaca it was discovered that there were neither the mules nor the wagons that French had promised would be waiting. French, along with several more new recruits finally arrived at Port Lavaca on June 4, finding that there were still no mules. French purchased young and unbroken mules and, after much delay, they finally made it to San Antonio via Victoria on July 6. There French produced such papers as military orders, bank drafts, and an unlimited line of credit drawn on a major New York shipping firm. All of it was bogus. He refurbished, re-supplied, and in mid July, finally left San Antonio. A month later in the Trans-Pecos they caught up with a wagon train carrying military supplies. French bought a number of the wagons and mules from the owner for a promised payment of nearly $18,000. French arrived in El Paso a couple of days ahead of his wagon train, which finally arrived on September 18. A frontiersman named Henry Skillman reached El Paso near midnight the next day; time had run out for all of them. Skillman had a letter from the shipping firm disavowing any claims against it, letters from merchants French had defrauded, and a warrant for French's arrest. The men of the expedition divided what they could salvage, raised what cash they could, divided into groups, and headed either west or back home. Some followed the planned route to San Diego, while others made their way to Mazatlan and other Gulf of California ports. Most were on foot and all suffered considerable hardships. The first to arrive in San Francisco made it there in mid-December. Small soil mark to buckram binder and a paper number on the front cover, internal wrappers are uniformly tanned at the edges, else a near fine copy.

Inventory Number: 45540Sold -- Contact us