This is the first edition, first state of this "classic account of the first American attempt at settlement of the Pacific Coast" (Howes). Irving's history of John Jacob Astor's attempt to bring American fur trade to the Pacific was based on revised transcripts of the journals of Robert Stuart , Wilson Price Hunt and Ramsay Crooks. Among these were " journals and letters narrating expeditions by sea, and journeys to and fro across the Rocky Mountains by routes before untraveled, together with documents illustrative of savage and colonial life on the borders of the Pacific."

Included in the 2nd volume is the map Sketch of the routes of Hunt and Stuart. While there is not much detail, Wheat says, "for what it purports to be it is an excellent map." The title pages have a stamp of the "Philermenian Society" which was a Brown University Literary Society. First edition, with the copyright notice and "Henry W. Rees, Stereotyper" on the verso of the title-page of volume one. Volume 1 contains 285 pages and volume 2 has 279 pages. Both volumes are bound in green cloth boards with gilt embossed title on spine.

References: Howes #I81; Wheat (TMW) #419.

Condition: B

The map has light offsetting, a 0.5" binding tear at right, and two short fold separations confined to the bottom blank margin. Text has light scattered foxing. Covers have average wear.