A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America: Containing a Succinct Account of its Soil, Climate, Natural History, Population, Agriculture, Manners, and Customs...to which are Added, the Discovery, Settlement, and Present state of Kentucky...by John Filson. To which is added, The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon...The Minutes of the Piankashaw Council....An Account of the Indian Nations Inhabiting within the Limits of the Thirteen United States...
London: J. Debrett, 1793.
Hardcover. Near fine. Second edition, with considerable additions. 8vo, original calf boards, new polished calf spine with blind-stamped floral design and red spine label. pp. [4], xvi, 433; [19] Index, [1] Errata, [2] ads, with two folding maps (The Western Part of the Territories Belonging to the United States; The State of Kentucky), a folding table of distances between Pittsburgh and points along the Ohio River, and a folding plan of the Rapids of the Ohio. Boards rubbed through at corners, occasional minor foxing; near fine. The most important eighteenth-century guide to the Trans-Allegheny region. Imlay was a surveyor and land speculator in Kentucky, and the first part of this book (and the entirety of the first edition) consists of a series of descriptive letters designed to attract settlers to the interior. This is followed by Filson's important work on the history of Kentucky, Boone's autobiographical account, and other valuable material, including Thomas Jefferson's 1791 "Report of the Secretary of State...of the Quantity and Situation of the Lands not Claimed by the Indians...." Sabin 34355 Streeter 1523. Howes I-12.
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