(TRAVEL.) Spillard, Maurice. Letter concerning the publication of his travels. Autograph Letter Signed. 2 pages, 12 x 7 inches; moderate edge wear with very minor loss of text * and related manuscript receipt signed by Spillard, 3 x 8 inches. London, August 1769 and 18 January 1795
Maurice Spillard was an itinerant figure who appears only briefly on the historical record, despite his best efforts. This letter to an unidentified correspondent describes his efforts to publish a volume of his scientific travels through America: "Soon after my arrival from America I took the liberty to address you on the subject of the publication of my travels. . . . My sole dependence for subsistance rested on the proposed profits of my book, which if brought out properly would be considerable. In consequence my circumstances at present are more embarrassed than I wish to describe. I am here far from my friends and country (America) and in a bad state of health." He adds that on his "passage to England I was twice captured by French privateers, who striped me of every article of value I had about me except my journals," including his collection of botanical specimens, but he expected all to be restored by the French government. Spillard was back in Newton, MA when the Revolution broke out, sided with the British, was imprisoned by the Americans, but failed in his efforts to gain formal recognition as a loyalist. He never gave up on his efforts to publish his early travels. In 1795, he was advanced £5 by the British publishers Cadell & Davies (receipt also included in this lot), but the book apparently never reached the presses, and even the manuscript has not been traced.
