“NOW FALLS A SHOWER OF ARROWS AND STONES FROM 500 INDIANS? TEN MEN AND ONE CALIFORNIA INDIAN COMPOSE THE GARRISON. AND HOW SHALL THEY BE SO DETAILED AS TO MEET THIS NUMEROUS FORCE?”: FIRST EDITION OF FARNHAM’S TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIAS, 1844

FARNHAM, Thomas J. Travels in the Californias, and Scenes in the Pacific Ocean. New York: Saxton & Miles, 1844. Octavo, original brown blind-stamped cloth. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition in book form of this sequel to 1841’s Travels in the Great Western Prairies, with a “most interesting” folding map of the Californias and frontispiece portrait of a Native American.

“This book is a sequel to his previous work, Travels in the Great Western Prairies, the Anahuac and Rocky Mountains, and in the Oregon Territory [1841]. The first 50 pages are taken up with his voyage from Oregon to Monterey via the Sandwich Islands. He arrived in California on April 18, 1840. About 70 pages are devoted to his stay in Monterey, Santa Barbara and San Blas. The balance of his knowledge of California seems to be derived from other sources, principally from printed material by such men as Hall J. Kelley, who gives a fairly accurate account of Upper California? David Douglas, the botanist, and Dr. John Lyman, of the original Workman-Rowland party? Farnham refers to both Ewing Young and George Yount for accounts of the route from Salt Lake to the Coast. The history of the Spanish and Mexican periods, pages 117 to 298, is followed by a chapter on Lower California” (Zamorano 80:36). “The map is most interesting, recording as it does Farnham’s route given in his previous volume and Dr. Lyman’s route from Santa Fe to California” (Streeter 2500).

Farnham’s “appreciative and detailed” narrative of his travels in California in the era just prior to the gold rush is fascinating. “Perhaps equally interesting, though, is his social commentary? He declares of ordinary civilians: ‘Could they only enter for an hour the portals of prairie life—for one hour breathe the inspiration of a hunter’s transcendentalism? how soon would their hissing and vulgar laboratories of disease and graves be forsaken.’ Also valuable is his commentary on the Native Americans. [While he] echoes the then-common Eurocentric conviction that Indians needed to be relocated and preached to before they could become ‘a reasoning, cultivated, and happy people? Farnham does allow the native people some dignity, including the fine, impassioned rhetoric of a Dartmouth-educated Indian, a speech that eloquently evaluates his position in a white, ‘civilized’ society” (ANB). First issued in four parts, “with printed paper titles. The first part was unnumbered and is frequently described as a complete work in 96 pages. Parts 2, 3, and 4 are numbered, Part 4 bearing the date 1845” (Zamorano 80:36).Without free endpapers. Sabin B.23871. Howes F49. Streeter 2500. Storm 1293. Cowan, 83. Owner signature and mathematical computations on front pastedown endpaper and verso of folding map. Bookseller ticket.

Scattered foxing and dampstaining. Expert repair to folding map. Light wear to extremities of publisher’s cloth. An extremely good copy of a very scarce work.