A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Leading to the Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Bloody River, with a Description of the Whole Course of the Former and of the Ohio

London: Hunt and Clarke, 1828. Hardcover. Good. First edition in English. Two octavo volumes, pp. lxxiii, 472; 545 pp, with three plates showing "Indian Ornaments,", engraved frontis portrait of the author "in his Dress among the Indians," two folding plans and a folding map of the course of the Mississippi. Bound in contemporary three-quarter leather and marbled boards. Ex-library, with call numbers on spines and ownership and discard stamps on the Bemidji Public Library. Inscribed on both front free endpapers "Presented to the Public Library of Bemidji, Minnesota by Edward C. Gale, Minneapolis, April 1921," and with correspondence from Gale to the library in an envelope affixed to the rear pastedown of Volume II. Gale (1862-1943) was a Minneapolis attorney, historian, civic leader, and philanthropist. Frontispiece of Volume I and title page of Volume II partially detached. Map is laid in loose and has creasing, tears, and small losses. Plan of the Palace Gardens belonging to the Duke of Baden has a tape repair to the verso and some losses; plan of Karlsruhe in fine condition. Plates are foxed. Bindings are tight and text clean. Volume I deals entirely with Europe. Volume II "covers the author's year in America, during which he traveled from the eastern seaboard to the Mississippi via the Ohio Valley, thence up the river to its tributaries in Minnesota, and then down the river to New Orleans. He undertook a hazardous and lonely journey in his search for the sources of the Mississippi and other rivers, in which he claimed success" (Clark II, 182). Eberstadt: "The second volume is almost entirely devoted to the author s travels among the Northwestern Indians of whom he gives some novel particulars. His itinerary was from Pittsburgh down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to Ft. Anthony; thence into Canada and down the Red River, giving an account of Selkirk Colony, thence across to the Missouri and down the Mississippi to New Orleans." Sabin 4605; Howes B-338; Field 111.