Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale fit dans le Golfe de Mexique, pour trouver l'embouchure, & le cours de la Riviere de Missicipi [sic]. redigé. par Monsieur De Michel. by JOUTEL, Henri (ca. 1640-1735) - 1713

Paris: Estienne Robinot, 1713. 12mo., (6 4/8 x 3 6/8 inches). Large folding engraved map of the eastern seaboard, Caribbean, and Central America (creased, one or two small holes, and unevenly browned), woodcut head- and tail-pieces. Contemporary French mottled calf, smooth spine in seven gilt decorated compartments (a bit scuffed at the head of the spine, front hinge just starting). First edition of the most accurate account of La Salle's last expedition and of his death at the hands of his own men, prepared from Joutel's manuscript journals by one Jean de Michel, who had been assigned the task of putting Joutel's account in order by the bookseller Estienne Robinot, commissioned by Joutel (after 15 years of hesitation) to publish the journals, in order to refute the many errors in H. de Tonti's "Dernieres decouvertes dans l'Amerique Septentrionale de M. de la Sale" (1697). A veteran of the French army, Joutel had joined La Salle as his aide in 1684, inspired by the explorer's plan to found a colony at the as yet undiscovered mouth of the Mississippi. Royal approval of the project, whose real motivation was to establish a French foothold close to Spanish territory, was granted in 1684, and the expedition of four ships set sail. Waylaid by storms and Spanish corsairs, the vessels overshot the Mississippi and landed on the coast of Texas at Matagorda Bay, where a colony was founded. La Salle made several attempts to find the Mississippi, during which expeditions Joutel was often left in charge of mutinous camps of colonists. When promised reinforcements failed to appear, La Salle determined to abandon the colony for an all-out attempt to find the mouth of the great river, on which he planned to return northwards to Canada, but his men, alienated by his haughtiness and apparent lack of sympathy for their hardships, revolted. In March 1687 a group of them murdered him on the shore of the Trinity River. Joutel was absent at the time, and upon his return expected to meet the same fate, but he was spared and managed to escape. The arduous journey of his small band to the Arkansas River, up the Mississippi, and eventually up to Quebec, occupies the final portion of his narrative. The map, the first to show the results of La Salle's journeys, depicts with impressive accuracy the east coast of North America, with the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana, and an accurate delineation of the course of the Mississippi. It is decorated with a fine vignette of Niagara Falls. The text of this edition Michel reduced the narrative by half and considerably altered the text, provoking bitter complaints from the author. Nonetheless, "for fullness of detail and exactness of statement [Joutel's] is the best description of La Salle's last expedition, while his journey from Texas to Quebec as an exploit has seldom been surpassed" (Dictionary of American Biography). Subsequent editions and translations of Joutel's account were based on Michel's abridgement, with the exception of a single appearance in print, in Pierre Margry's 1878 six-volume compilation of the "Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l'ouest et dans le sud de l'Amérique septentrionale". Howes J266; Church 855; Graff 2251; Jenkins Basic Texas Books 114; Wagner Spanish Southwest 79; Sabin 36760. Alden & Landis 713/103. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.