HENNEPIN (Louis). Description de la Louisiane nouvellement découverte au Sud-Ouest de la Nouvelle France - Les mœurs des Sauvages. Paris, Auroy, 1688; 2 parts in one vol. in-12 (156 x 89 mm), spotted calf, ribbed spine decorated with gilt fleurons (Period binding). (6) ff. 312-107 pp. FIRST DESCRIPTION OF LOUISIANA. INCLUDES THE VERY RARE MAP OF THIS NEW TERRITORY (48 x 31 cm), THE FIRST TO BE NAMED LOUISIANE. Second edition, as rare as the first with the map (the 1684 edition is a forgery). Only 2 complete copies appear to have been sold in the last 70 years (Paris 30/10/1978 and Vte Oinonen 22/9/1987). The copy sold in 2007 (Christies 3/12/07) did not have its original card but that of a Dutch forgery. In 1675, Hennepin was part of Cavelier de la Salle's expedition, commissioned by Louis XIV to extend French colonisation around New France and, in 1678, to promote the fur trade by searching for the mouth of a major river where ships could land. For two years, Hennepin and his companions travelled across Canada as far as the great lakes, sometimes sailing in a small birchbark canoe. They travelled down the Illinois River ("the Seignelay") to its junction with the "Colbert River" (the Mississippi), and back up to where Minneapolis is today... Hennepin was the first to publish a description of Niagara Falls ("an incredible leap (whose) waters froth, bubble and thunder continuously"). Captured by the Sioux, he remained a prisoner for three months before being discovered and ransomed by the French. Les Mœurs des Sauvages (107 pp), following the Description, is the fruit of this experience: an enumeration of their "incivilities" (hygiene, egocentrism, more than simplified love habits, etc.), feasts, games, cruelties, political organisation (power and frequency of their Councils), hunting and fishing methods, superstitions, etc. A FINE COPY IN A HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY BINDING WITH THE MAP IN A REMARKABLY FRESH CONDITION. Two engravings, from a trip to America, comic strips before the letter depicting the customs of savages, have been mitre-mounted at the beginning and end; two others, from an edition of Robinson Crusoe, glued on the inside back covers. One corner of the upper cover is missing; the map is split (4 cm) but not missing, reinforced by a small strip of paper.