Travels through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768

8vo period calf, nicely rebacked with modern calf, original spine label retained. 508 pp illustrated with 2 copper engravings, and a folding copper-engraved map. Some aging and wear to covers, and map has short stub tear neatly repaired. Ownership signature of Frances O’Callaghan to the top of title page. Internally near fine condition. Account of exploration into the interior of North American by an Englishman seeking a transcontinental waterway. He went further West than any English explorer before the Revolutionary War, and while he may not have contributed significantly to geographic knowledge, according to Howes his book stimulated the interest concerning routes to the Pacific by others like Lewis & Clark. Carl Wheat in his work Mapping the Transmississippi West credits Carver as being the first to use the name “Oregon” or “River of the West”, the river people believed to exist in the west beyond the great mountains, and one that emptied into the Pacific. This represented a sought after water passage across the continent. The map included in this work, which is anonymous, according to Wheat, is the same as the Thomas Kitchin of 1787. The map extends from Hudson’s Bay in the north to the tip of Florida in the south. Perhaps a somewhat over looked value of Carver’s book is the material he includes on the Indians. A good portion of the book reviews the manners and customs of the Indians, and he even includes a vocabulary of the Chippeway language. He also gives an account of the massacre at Fort William Henry, and of his own escape from the Indians.