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Engraved map. 48x44.7 cm (18¾x17½").

Rare map of the Missouri River and the upper Mississippi, spanning from Lake Superior to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, south beyond Mendocino on the California Coast, with the Platte River, the Stony or Yellow Mountains, and many other captivating yet inevitably erroneous features. Pre-dating Lewis and Clark, the map is significant for its delineation of the Missouri up to the Mandan villages. The map was issued as plate 29 in the atlas volume of Collot's Voyage dans l'Amerique septentrionale..., which was printed in 1805 but not published until 1826, in an edition of 100 copies in English and 300 copies in French; the map texts were all in English. Collot led an expedition down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the spring and summer of 1796, through the Illinois and Louisiana territories then held by the Spanish crown, during which he made maps and observed fortifications and the country's military preparedness, almost certainly on a secret mission on behalf of the French Republic.

Provenance: Camelot Books, 3/95

Watermark J H S, with cross above H, c-k, BB; not in Heawood or Churchill

References: Wheat Transmississippi 236