Foundational Work for a Library of Californiana -- The First History of California
First French edition of this essential work, the first history of California. Wagner calls this "a rather precise translation" by Marc Antoine Eidous, made from the 1759 English edition, which was in turn translated from the first edition in Spanish published at Madrid in 1757. Though the work is attributed to Venegas it was really written by the learned Jesuit Father Andrés Marcos Burriel. Interestingly the style is lucid and secular in spirit, unlike other early accounts by members of religious orders.
Throughout the work great attention is paid to the geography of the country, Father Burriel having obtained a large number of maps from which to study this... He was a great admirer of Father Kino and continually quotes from his manuscript, which he calls Historia de la Misiones de la Compañía de Jesús de la Provincia de Sonora. It is very probable that this manuscript is the one that we know as the Favores Celestiales. Speaking of the expedition of Father Kino to the mouth of the Colorado river, Father Burriel states that this is referred to in the relaciones of Captain Juan Matheo Manje... - Wagner.
The map is on the Consag model, which is updated from Kino's original maps of the region and shows nearly all of the Baja California as well as the mouth of the Colorado River and the Sea of Cortez.
According to Field this work is "undoubtedly the most faithful narration we possess, regarding the original condition of the Indians of any part of North America."
"Venegas is the principal source of information about the explorations made by Father Consag in 1746 by which the question of the insularity of California was finally set at rest. Consag's description of the Gulf of California and the mouth of the Colorado River received wide publicity through the volumes of Venegas" - Farquhar.
A key California book.