PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EXPLORATIONS AND INCIDENTS IN TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, CALIFORNIA, SONORA, AND CHIHUAHUA CONNECTED WITH THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION, DURING THE YEARS 1850, '51, '52, AND '53 (VOLUMES I ANDS II BOUND TOGETHER)

Bartlett, John Russelll

Edité par D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1854

A propos de cet article

Two volumes bound in one. Octavo, 9.1 in, x 5.8 in., pp. xxii, 506, xvii, [1], 624. Illustrated with two fold-out frontispieces, one fold-out map, fourteen tissue-guarded tinted lithographs, and ninety-four woodcuts. Contemporary brown pebblecloth covers with stamped frame to front and back with gilt title to spine. Rebacked with original cloth spine laid over. Light rubbing to extremities, with three corners just showing. Sunning to spine. Light tidelines to upper corners of plates, and about 100 pages. Four inch closed tear to map at hinge. Map condition: Very Good. Howes B201, Wagner-Camp 234. From Texas State Historical Association: "Thanks to his standing in the Whig party, John Russell Bartlett (1805-1886) was appointed United States boundary commissioner (by Zachary Taylor) to carry out the provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Despite his ignorance of the Southwest he accepted this post because he wanted to travel, because he wanted to see Indians, and because he needed the money. Bartlett left New York with a large party on August 3, 1850, and landed at Indianola, Texas, twenty-seven days later. After traveling overland, he arrived at El Paso del Norte (Juárez) to begin work with the Mexican boundary commissioner, Pedro García Conde. The point where the southern boundary of New Mexico was to begin on the Rio Grande proved difficult to determine because of inaccuracies in Disturnell's 1847 "Map of the United Mexican States," and Bartlett allowed the boundary to be set forty-two miles north of El Paso. When American boundary surveyor Andrew B. Gray refused to agree to this, Bartlett departed for a tour of northwestern Mexico. He arrived in California, he then traveled east through Arizona and New Mexico to Texas, where he learned that Congress had rejected the Bartlett-García Conde line. Because of Bartlett's error, the United States in 1853 had to negotiate the Gadsden Purchase, which set the boundary of New Mexico at 31°47' north latitude. The Gadsden Purchase, which transferred mainly desert lands to the United States, was viewed as essential for establishing a southern route for the transcontinental railroad. "Bartlett returned to Rhode Island and wrote a two-volume Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua, Connected with the United States and Mexican Boundary Commission, during the years 1850, 51, 52, and 53 (1854), which became a standard early source of information about Texas and the Southwest.".

N° de réf. du vendeur 87779

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EXPLORATIONS AND INCIDENTS IN TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, CALIFORNIA, SONORA, AND CHIHUAHUA CONNECTED WITH THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION, DURING THE YEARS 1850, '51, '52, AND '53 (VOLUMES I ANDS II BOUND TOGETHER)
• Éditeur: D. Appleton and Company, New York
• Date de parution: 1854
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: First Edition.
• État de l'article: Very Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Americana, Western