Navigator: Containing Directions for Navigating the Monongahela

1808. [CRAMER, Zadok, pub]. The Navigator: Containing Directions for Navigating the Monongahela, Alleghany [sic], Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers...To Which is Added An Appendix, Containing An Account of Louisiana, and of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, As Discovered by the Voyage Under Captains Lewis and Clark. Pittsburgh. 1808. [2],156pp. including twenty-eight full-page maps. 12mo. Original half deerskin and plain paper boards. Boards quite heavily worn, much of the paper stripped. Text tanned and stained, with an occasional fox mark. Several leaves with tears at the edges, some running into the text. Portion at the bottom of leaf G (containing pages 77-78) torn away, costing a bit of the map on the recto and a couple lines of text on the verso. Overall, still in good, unsophisticated condition. In a half morocco box. This copy bears a contemporary manuscript note on the front free endpaper: "Jonathan Bacon's book bought at Pitsburgh [sic] May 1809 price $1.00." There is also at least one instance of contemporary manuscript notes in the text. Styled the "Sixth edition - improved and enlarged" on the titlepage, but actually only the fourth known edition, after those of 1802, 1804, and 1806. The first two editions have been found in a few copies only. Cramer's work is the first navigational guide for the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, which were vitally important commercial arteries at the time. The present edition is the first to contain material regarding the Lewis and Clark expedition, found on the final ten pages of text. The Lewis and Clark material is taken from Patrick Gass' journal, which was also printed by Zadok Cramer in Pittsburgh the previous year. Also included are twenty-eight woodcut maps of various sections of the rivers described. A vitally important work in helping to develop the commerce of the early United States, with a very early account of Lewis and Clark's discoveries. HOWES C855, "aa." SABIN 17385. LITERATURE OF THE LEWIS & CLARK EXPEDITION, pp.89-94. STREETER SALE 992.