xii, 324 pp. With color lithographed frontispiece; 6 wood-engraved plates; folding lithographed map measuring 17.5x15.3 cm (6¾x6"). Volume is (12mo) 18.5x11.5 cm (7¼x4½"), original red gilt-pictorial blindstamped cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Second Edition - Revised and Enlarged.
The sought-after and scarce second edition, which was the first to contain the color frontispiece and wood-engraved plates, and the significant map of the gold region, which first appeared in this second edition, but not in all copies. About the map, which is titled "Map of the Gold Region from actual survey by direction of Com. Jones, 1849," Warren Heckrotte writes: "This map and that of Jarves are close enough to indicate common source. Since it was done under direction of Com. Jones, this would indicate map is by a naval officer. Only naval officer that I can think of who made maps was Lt. Blair." The map extends from the San Francisco Bay Area in the southwest, east to the Sierra Nevada (with the Mariposa River at the southern extremity), and north to above Yuba [City]. Howes calls the work "One of the best earlier accounts of the gold fields..." Wheat describes it as "one of the earliest published accounts by an actual `returned Californian,' who asserts that he visited California to dig gold, but chose to abandon that purpose rather than expose his life and health in the mines." Johnson embarked on one of the first steamers which sailed from New York City for Panama, and arrived in San Francisco on April 1, 1849, and by April 12 was at Sutter's Mill. He observed the camps and towns, met Sutter, Old Greenwood and others, commented on the ill treatment of the Indians, and by May 1 felt he had had enough and left California, returning via the Isthmus and arriving in Philadelphia on June 26. Kurutz calls the work "one of the earliest, liveliest, and most detailed accounts of the Gold Rush."
Provenance: Camelot Books, IMCoS Fair, 10/95
References: Cowan p.315; (Graff 2223); Howes J154; Kurutz 363c; Sabin 36329; Wagner-Camp 167g:3; Wheat Maps 163; (Wheat Books 112).
Condition:
Spine a little dull with some rubbing at ends and corners; map with vertical strip at right edge darkened comprising the right ¾" of the map image plus the gutter margin; very good or better, nicer than usually found.