Mar 31, 2011 - Sale 2241

Sale 2241 - Lot 171

Price Realized: $ 3,840
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(HAWAII.) Shaler, William. Journal of a Voyage between China and the North-Western Coast of America, pages 137-175 in: The American Register: or, General Repository of History, Politics, and Science, Part I for 1808, Volume III, offered complete. 8vo, contemporary calf-backed boards, moderate wear; small paper flaw on collective title page; uncut. Philadelphia, 1808
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Additional Details

First printing of an important merchant narrative, from Canton to Guatemala to Mexico to California to Hawaii. Perhaps the first description of California by an American observer. On Los Angeles: "This village is composed of about 100 families, many of whom are in easy circumstances . . . they are rapidly advancing in the culture of the vine, and the wine produced here is of a good quality" (page 155). "Gives a good general physical description of the [Hawaiian] islands, comments on the religious and political structure of the society . . . particularly important for its comments on Kamehameha"--Forbes 396.