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Author: Ashe, Thomas
Title: Travels in America, Performed in the Year 1806, for the Purpose of Exploring the Rivers Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi and Ascertaining the Produce and Condition of Their Banks and Vicinity.
Place Published: Newburyport, [Mass.]
Publisher:William Sawyer & Co.
Date Published: 1808
Description:

366 pp. (8vo) 18x10.5 cm (7x4¼") period full calf, red leather label. First American Edition.

Reprinted from the London Edition of 1806. An unflattering view of America and Americans. Clark describes Ashe as a man who "was checkered with intrigue, misrepresentation, and fraud. Embarking on the Ohio in April, 1806, Ashe and two servants began a trip to New Orleans on a flatboat The chief reason for his journey was an intense interest in archaeological remains. He uncovered Indian tombs, sought bones of extinct animals, and climaxed his trip by swindling Dr. William Goforth out of a skeleton of a mammoth. Enlivened by misrepresentation and exaggeration, Ashe's account is interesting and highly readable. Apparently he realized that a book devoted largely to the condemnation of Americans would be profitable." Howes A-352.

Read, head of spine chipped; staining to a few leaves at front, foxing; very good.