Voyages And Travels Of An Indian Interpreter And Trader, Describing The Manners And Customs Of The North American Indians; With An Account Of The Posts Situated On The River Saint Laurence, Lake Ontario, Etc. To Which Is Added, A Vocabulary Of The Chippeway Language. Names Of Furs And Skins, In English And French. A List Of Words In The Iroquois, Mohegan, Shawanee, And Esquimeaux Tongues, And A Table, Shewing The Analogy Between The Algonkin And Chippeway Languages

JOHN LONG

Publication: Printed for the author, 1791, London

First edition. 4to. Full calf with extensive decorative and diced blind-embossing, raised bands with titles stamped in gilt on the spine rules and decorations, inner dentelles. x, (2 pp), 295 pp. All edges gilt. Folding map frontispiece, marbled front and rear endpapers, preface, errata, vocabulary.

John Long was an English trader who spent much of the 1770s and early 1780s in what is now Canada and the Great Lakes region. He lived among Indigenous communities, learned several Indigenous languages and worked as an interpreter in the fur trade. Includes Long's travels through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence regions; descriptions of the fur trade; accounts of British and French trading posts; observations on the customs, social organization, religion, hunting practices, and diplomacy of Indigenous peoples; narratives of encounters with the Ojibwe (Chippewa) and other nations; a substantial Chippeway (Ojibwe) vocabulary; lists of words in Iroquois, Mohegan, Shawanee (Shawnee), and Esquimeaux (Inuit) languages; a comparative table showing similarities between Algonkin and Chippeway languages; English and French names for furs and skins used in the North American fur trade; etc.

Nice first edition of the famed exploration narrative by this British explorer and fur trader who began with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1768 and spent almost two decades among the Native Americans of Canada. Writes Thomas W. Field: "His knowledge of the character, customs, and domestic life of the Indians was therefore the most thorough and intimate. His relations are characterized by candor and intelligence, tinged a little with the disappointments, which most of the servants of the Company who have written accounts of their experiences, seem to have suffered." Foldout map is superb, and as usual leaves a bit of offsetting to title page. Subtitle continues, describing Long's well-known 100+ page Native American word lists: "To Which Is Added, a Vocabulary of The Chippeway Language. Names of Furs and Skins, in English and French. A List of Words in the Iroquois, Mohegan, Shawanee, and Esquimeaux Tongues, and a Table, Shewing the Analogy Between the Algonkin and Chippeway Languages." Thwaites says "The interest of the work, aside from incidental historical references ....., lies in the author's intimate knowledge of Indian life and customs .....; and the light he incidentally throws on the history of the fur trade."

Near fine 19th century rebind that is quite attractive, but a tad worn at hinges with a small chip at gutter of front and rear covers; internally tight and fine and bright, with no age toning or foxing, but with a faint corner crease to a few pages. An attractive and well-preserved copy.