Details
PERRY, John A. Thrilling Adventures of a New Englander: Travels, Scenes and Sufferings in Cuba, Mexico and California. Boston: Redding & Co., 1853.
8o (205 x 130 mm). Wood engravings in text. (Title-page slightly frayed at edges, leaf 6/7 with closed tear crossing text.) Modern half calf (lightly rubbed). Provenance: Lindley Eberstadt (sold Sotheby's, 1 May 1985, lot 207).
FIRST EDITION of Perry's rare account of his colorful travels in Cuba, Mexico and California. In Havana, he "saw the miseries of slavery fully depicted. Such a waste of human life is enough to make any man, who has the least feeling for the poor slave, shudder" (p.11). In Vera Cruz and Mexico City, poverty, banditry and Catholicism offended him at every turn: "I cheerfully bid adieu to Mexico, with her bigotry, superstition, priestcraft and degradation, hoping the Americans will pity them and take the country and civilize and moralize the people" (p.69). He ends with vivid accounts of the hardships and dangers faced by the Forty-Niners: "Men had become desperate...Much has been said of the sufferings and dangers of the miners, but the half has not been told" (p.94). Cowan II p.480; Graff 3257; Howes P-247a; Kurutz 499; Streeter sale V:2744; Wagner-Camp-Becker 229. Not in Sabin.
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FIRST EDITION of Perry's rare account of his colorful travels in Cuba, Mexico and California. In Havana, he "saw the miseries of slavery fully depicted. Such a waste of human life is enough to make any man, who has the least feeling for the poor slave, shudder" (p.11). In Vera Cruz and Mexico City, poverty, banditry and Catholicism offended him at every turn: "I cheerfully bid adieu to Mexico, with her bigotry, superstition, priestcraft and degradation, hoping the Americans will pity them and take the country and civilize and moralize the people" (p.69). He ends with vivid accounts of the hardships and dangers faced by the Forty-Niners: "Men had become desperate...Much has been said of the sufferings and dangers of the miners, but the half has not been told" (p.94). Cowan II p.480; Graff 3257; Howes P-247a; Kurutz 499; Streeter sale V:2744; Wagner-Camp-Becker 229. Not in Sabin.