CHAMPLAIN, Samuel de. - Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada, faits par le Sr Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la Marine du Ponant, & toutes les Descouvertes qu'il a faites en ce pais depuis l'an 1603. Iusques ...

Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada, faits par le Sr Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la Marine du Ponant, & toutes les Descouvertes qu'il a faites en ce pais depuis l'an 1603. Iusques en I'am 1629.
Paris: Chez Claude Collet, 1632. [1], 3-8, 308; 310; [2], 8; 54, [2], 20 pp., 4to (220 x 170 mm). 6 in-text engraved illustrations, in-text engraved map. Early speckled calf, covers with triple fillet border in blind, spine in five compartments with raised bands. Condition : lacks the folding map, worming affecting the Table and Traitté de la Marine, minor foxing; covers restored at extremities and recased retaining the original backstrip although abraded. Provenance : Francis Charles Granville Egerton (1847-1914), 3rd Earl of Ellesmere (Bridgewater Library bookplate on the front free endpaper). Champlain's work stands alone as a full, accurate, and detailed account of New France in the first three decades of the seventeenth century. He was the first to systematically explore a large part of the coastline of New England reaching as far south as just below Cape Cod; he can also be said to have initiated the exploration of the Great Lakes. Champlain's contribution to the early exploration, description and mapping of North America is unique. The six engravings which appear in this edition, identical to those which illustrated the 1619 Champlain, are some of the most accurate illustrations of Indians to appear before the nineteenth century. In short, his work offers an historical and ethnological source without compare. The first part of the 1632 Champlain contains abridged accounts of his first six voyages through 1613, a full account of the seventh voyage of 1615-17, and with a brief note on the eighth. The second part contains, printed here for the first time, a full account of the ninth voyage and a history of Canada for the period 1620-31. A treatise on navigation follows and is also its first appearance. “Of all the editions of Champlain, this is the only complete one … This work gives us the first accurate account we have of the life, habits, and warfare of the Indians in the interior of the present State of New York” (Church). Church 420; European Americana 632/21; Gagnon 766; Harrisse Nouvelle France 51; Lande 118; Pilling Algonquian pp. 80--81; Sabin 11839; Siebert Sale 7; Streeter Sale 3631.