Report of an Expedition Down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers

Washington: Robert Armstrong, 1853. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Senate issue (32d Congress, 2d Session, Executive, No. 59). Complete as issued, with 198 pp + 79 lithographed plates (23 views, 6 mammals, 5 birds, 21 reptiles, 3 fish, 21 botanical plates) and large folding map. Original brown cloth, with chipping and tears to spine cloth. Spine cracked at pp 174/175; intermittent foxing, primarily affecting the title page, occasional text margins, and about 20 plates (mainly mammals, birds, reptiles and botanicals, as opposed to the views, which are generally clean). Map has a few splits at the intersections and one closed tear that has been repaired on the verso. This was the final expedition made by the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers in connection with the Mexican War. In addition to Sitgreaves, the expedition party included J.G. Parke, Richard H. Kern as draughtsman, S.W. Woodhouse as physician and naturalist and Antoine Leroux as guide. Its purpose was to determine whether the Zuni River actually emptied into the Colorado and to examine the territory en route. The party followed the Zuni from Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico to the Little Colorado, then continued west, reaching the Colorado near the Mojave villages and then proceeding south to Camp Yuma and San Diego. Wheat (3: 22-24) notes that the map is very detailed and calls it "a monumental achievement...generally correct and exceedingly well done." Howes S-528, Wheat 763, Wagner Camp 230:1, Graff 3809, Field 1414.