First edition. 8vo. Later Spanish wrappers. Very good with some contemporary ms. marginalia. 24pp. Paris, Imprimerie de E.-J Bailly, 1842.
Very rare: the first published news of French diplomat, Eugène Duflot de Mofras' important travels to California, Oregon, and Mexico during which he was charged with a mission "to explore and evaluate the commercial possibilities of California and the Oregon Territory, in order that the French government would be better able to decide whether to become involved in the conflict over Oregon between the U.S. and Great Britain" (Hill).
Howgego provides a brief overview of his travels: "From Mexico City in 1840 Duflot travelled to Tepic, then followed the old missionary route to San Blas, the port city that had been built to supply San Diego and Monterey, but found most of its dockyards in ruins. Across the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortés or Vermillion Sea), he visited Loreto and its mission, which he found had also fallen into decay. Moving further north he visited San Diego in January 1841 and continued northward along the Californian coast, later that year visiting Hawaii. In October 1841 he took passage in the ship Cowlitz from Hawaii to the coast of Oregon, and visited the Columbia River until 21.12.41. Of Oregon he wrote later that he hoped the French Canadians of the northwest would throw off English rule and establish their own province or a sovereign state within the United States. He was back in Hawaii on 1.3.42 and returned to Mexico that year. During his travels he was assisted in every way by both the secular and religious authorities of California, and was given access to all the documentary material of the province, making it possible for him to provide a more complete report on the affairs of the country than any other traveller. On his return to France he published his Exploration du territoire de l’Orégon, des Californies et de la mer Vermeille, considered by many to be the most important work of the period treating the western coasts of North America."
Printed on thick paper, this precis of his time abroad focuses primarily on California with mentions of San Diego, San Francisco Bay, Santa Barbara, Monterrey, and the Sacramento River. Commencing with quick geographical and historical notes, he turns to the natural history, crops including tobacco, hemp, cotton, olives and grapes (faint praise saying the wine produced "n'est pas d'inferior" to Spanish wine), plus notes on the soil and its mineral wealth (including gold). He also mentions Hernan Cortez and that the first French voyage to reach California was the ill-fated La Perouse, and makes reference to Hawaii (îles Sandwich) - the missionaries Bachelot and Short - as well as Russian trading posts in the northwest.
He extols the Spanish efforts in America, especially through the establishment of Jesuits, Franciscan, and Dominican missions and settlers in pueblos who, via Catholicism, were able to co-exist with, and convert, Native Americans. Indeed, he discusses the education and assimilation of Native children whom he notes excel and both singing and music. He could hardly believe his ears at the Santa Cruz mission when the troop of Native musicians played "La Marseillaise" and "Vivre Henri IV." And there is a detailed description of French missions, their structure, staff, and routine and reports that missions such as the ones at San Gabriel, San Diego, and Luiz each had up to three thousand Native Americans living across fifteen to twenty farms. The patronising tone employed and the relationship described sounds more like indentured rather than free labour.
French colonial ambitions were almost certainly part of the brief and Duflot's focus on missionary activity culminates with his conclusion that the colonisation of California is better entrusted to missionaries rather than soldiers: [in translation] "the sword without Catholicism is powerless to establish anything lasting."
This lecture was reprinted the following year in the Bulletin de la Société de géographie, I, pp.5-15, but this first appearance is almost unheard of. Two years later, he published his famous multi-volume account, which, Lada-Mocarski described as "one of the most important works on the northwestern coast, including Alaska."
OCLC locates copies at the University of Navarra in Spain, and Sachsische Landesbibliothek and Thuringer University in Germany.
Hill, 496; Howgego II, D32; cf. Forbes; cf. Lada-Mocarski, 120; cf. Sabin 21144.
