Beschreibung:

The Second Journal of Christian Frederick Post, On a Message from the Governor of Pensilvania to the Indians on the Ohio.
London: Printed for J. Wilkie, 1759. 8vo (220 x 140 mm). Stitched self-wrappers, uncut. Housed in a cloth clamshell case. Condition : toning and wrinkling to the title, very minor fraying at sheet edges. Provenance : Frank T. Siebert (Sotheby’s New York, 21 May 1999, lot 534). first edition of a french and indian war rarity. the siebert copy, as issued in stitched self-wrappers. Christian Frederick Post (c.1710-1785), a Moravian missionary, made two harrowing journeys into Western Pennsylvania during the French & Indian War to attempt to persuade those tribes to side with the British. His journal of the first journey was published as an appendix to Charles Thomson’s An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians (London: 1759). On his second journey, the journal of which is published here, he succeeded in convincing sixteen chiefs to support Great Britain, thus gaining control over the Ohio valley and contributing greatly to the victory over the French. Both the first and second journals are said to have been printed at Benjamin Franklin’s expense. “This famous narrative of the ceremonies and hardships experienced by Post and soldiers assigned to the frontier survives in this copy as it was first read in 1759” (Siebert Sale). very rare . Only the Siebert copy has appeared at auction in the last quarter century. Field 1233; Howes P501; Sabin 64453; Siebert Sale 534 (this copy); Streeter Sale 966; Vail 534.