THE STRAIT OF DAVIS AND ITS PEOPLE

HAAN, L. F.

Beschryving van de Straat Davids, benévens des zelven inwooners, zede, gestalte, en gewoonte, mitsgaders hunne visvangst, en andere handelingen. Als mede een kort en beknopt verhaal van de westkust van de zelfde straat, of anders Noord Amerika. [i.e. Dutch "Description of the Strait of Davis, its inhabitants, manners, fishery, with an account of its Western coetst or North-America"].

Amsterdam, Gerard van Keulen, 1720.

4to. In recent half cloth with black leather title-label with gilt lettering to front board. Gilt stamp to front board. Small stamp to lower margin of title-page, not affecting text, otherwise fine. (1)-31 pp. [Sabin want 40 pp., which includes another work: "Korte Beschryving van de Westkust der Straat Davids, ofte anders Noord Amerika genoemd", not present here].

Exceedingly rare first edition of Haan's early and important description of the Strait of Davis and the people of the strait.

During the first half of the seventeenth century, the Noordsche compagnie had sent several expeditions to the west of Greenland in a futile search for a northwest passage to Asia or, failing that, valuable minerals, whales, seals, or other opportunities. "In tandem with these exploratory ventures, Dutch traders, mostly from the North Sea Island of Terschelling, began a modest barter trade with the Inuits of Greenland's west coast. [...] In 1720, a Terschelling Island captain, Lourens Feykes Haan, codified the accumulated knowledge of western Greenland by publishing in Amsterdam a detailed description of the lands and people of the strait" (Richards, The Unending Frontier).

Sabin 29408

Order-nr.: 56149