8vo (210 x 124 mm). 2-page publisher's advertisements at end. 2 engraved folding maps of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. (Some pale spotting.) Modern quarter calf.

FIRST EDITION OF A WORK WHICH "HAD A GREATER INFLUENCE IN ATTRACTING ITS READERS TO AMERICA THAN ANY OTHER BOOK OF THE PERIOD" (Vail). The maps provide the first detailed descriptions of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. "The author was a native of Normandy, of noble birth, and came to the British Colonies at the age of sixteen. Having established himself on a farm near the frontier, he became one of the first victims of the War of Independence, the Indian allies of Great Britain setting fire and destroying his property. He wrote his letters during the different epochs of the war, in English. Returning to France, he translated them into French" (Sabin 17496). Howes C-883 ("As literature unexcelled by an American work of the eighteenth century"); Streeter II:711 ("These are a series of twelve charming letters, describing the life in America, four of them about Nantucket, and one about Martha's Vineyard and the Whale Fishery"); Vail 674.