*Only two copies have been offered for sale during the past five years; one copy sold at $95.00, and the other is now offered by a reliable firm of booksellers at $105.00.
A valuable source work
Pittman's Mississippi Settlements contains much valuable original material for the study of the French and Spanish Settlements of old Louisiana, West Florida, and the Illinois country. The author, Captain Philip Pittman, was a British military engineer, and gives an accurate general view of the Mississippi Settlements just after the English came into possession of the eastern half of the valley by the Peace of 1763. His account, written from personal observation, is rich in allusions to the political, social, and military readjustments resulting from this change of possession. "A comprehensive account of the Illinois country and its inhabitants, with sketches in detail of the several French posts and villages situated therein, as personally viewed by him in 1766-67.... It contains, in a compact form, much useful and reliable information (nowhere else to be found) concerning the Mississippi Valley and its people at that transition period."—Wallace: Illinois and Louisiana under French Rule.
The earliest English account
Dr. William F. Poole in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America says: "It is the earliest English account of those settlements, and, as an authority in early western history, is of the highest importance. He [Pittman] was a military engineer, and for five years was employed in surveying the Mississippi River and exploring the western country. The excellent plans which accompany the work, artistically engraved on copper, add greatly to its value."
Annotation by Professor Hodder
An introduction, notes, and index have been supplied by Professor Frank Heywood Hodder, who has made a special study of American historical geography. The value of the reprint is thus enhanced by annotation embodying the results of the latest researches in this field of American history.
The edition is limited to 500 copies, each numbered. It is handsomely printed in large Caslon type on Dickinson's deckle-edged paper. With folding maps and plans. Large 8vo, cloth, uncut, gilt top.
Price $3.00 net.