Beschreibung:

Smith, William. 1727-1803.] A Letter from Quebeck, in Canada, to M. L'Maine, a French officer. Boston: Printed and sold by Thomas Fleet, at the Heart and Crown in Cornhill, 1754. 4to (250 x 143 mm). 8 pp. Folded sheet, uncut and unopened. Split at outer fold, wear to pages edges. Provenance: Nathaniel Sparhawk (1715-1776, ink inscription); from a private New England estate (additional lots, see 169, 170, 210, 211, 295). RARE PIECE OF COLONIAL PROPAGANDA FROM THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. With unconfirmed reports returning to Massachusetts of French war movements in the North, this pamphlet prints a purported letter from a French officer discussing French forces and their Indian counterparts amassing numbers and plans, "which gives us a glorious Prospect of adding a Kingdom to our dread Sovereign's Dominion." Utilizing pro-Catholic overtones and offering supposed intelligence of British vulnerabilities, the account was most certainly spurious, printed in the colonies in order to stoke fears in the colonies and shift opinion towards war. Signed by the non-existent De Roche, some have attributed this to William Smith pamphleteer and provost of the College of Philadelphia (see Jennings, Empire of Fortune, New York, 1988). "Very scarce, but one or two copies having occurred at auction" (De Puy sale 1391). Evans 7225, locating a single copy; Sabin 72305.