1829. · Edinburgh
by Hall, Basil, Capt.
Edinburgh: Printed for T. Cadell and Co., 1829.. Three volumes. iv,ii,421; [4],ii,432; vii,[1],436pp., plus folding colored map and folding table. Half titles. 12mo. Contemporary gilt calf, expertly rebacked to style, spines gilt. Corners rubbed. Contemporary bookplate on front pastedowns. Internally clean. Very good. First edition. Captain Hall, a Scottish naval officer, travelled throughout much of the Northeast and the Midwest, including the Great Lakes region. His southern route brought him through Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama. He also travelled south via the Mississippi through Louisiana, and north to Quebec; his route is traced on the map. "His work contains many excellent descriptions of places and conditions that came under his observation" (Clark), including Creek ceremonies, and navigating the Mississippi. The handsome colored map shows the United States as far west as Arkansas Territory and Missouri. "Hall's three-volume Travels in North America...was one of the most widely read of over 200 such books written by British travelers to North America before the Civil War. Like all of these books, however, it was in general condemned by American readers...defensive about any European's judgments concerning the new nation's political experiments, its classless society, and its system of slavery which, especially to Britons at the time, was becoming more and more abhorrent. Nevertheless, perhaps in part because of Hall's intent to help his countrymen 'think the Americans more worthy of regard and confidence,' perhaps in part because he was determined to learn about America only from Americans, Hall's 'Travels' was more nearly acceptable in the United States than contemporaneous accounts....Readers today, especially Americans, will in fact find Hall's keen, detailed, and well-written observations to be both just and significant" - ANB. ANB 9, p.849. HOWES H47. CLARK III:48. BUCK 207. SABIN 29725.
(Inventory #: WRCAM50758)