Travels in America, Performed in 1806, for the Purpose of Exploring the Rivers Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio and Mississippi, and Ascertaining the Produce and Condition of their Banks and Vicinity

ix+366 pages. Small octavo ( (7 1/4" x 4 1/4") in the original leather binding with black label in gilt to spine. (Howes:354) First printed in 1806 in London in three volumes. Second printing.

Thomas Ashe (1770-1835), was born in Dublin, Ireland and was a soldier and memoirist. Much of his life was checkered with intrigue and fraud. His Memoirs and Confessions (1815) is an autobiographical account of 'criminal and delinquent' escapades beginning with the seduction of a girl in France. In America he edited the National Intelligencer, and was arrested when attempting to steal treasures from churches in Latin America. His Travels in America first appeared in 1806. The narrative, chronicles Ashe's travels by flatboat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in 1806 and is one of the first travelogues written by a foreigner to comment specifically on the American inhabitants of the region. A unrestrained hatred of Americans can be found throughout the work. While the account is interesting and highly readable it was to create quite a stir, and added to the wave of anti-British sentiment that would ultimately lead to the War of 1812.