[America. Virginia] (Beverley, R.). Histoire de la Virginie,

contenant I. L'histoire du premier etablissement dans la Virgini, & de son gouvernement jusques à présent. II. Les productions naturelles et les commoditez du païs, avant que (l)es Anglois y negociassent, & améliorassant. III. La religion, les loix, & les coutumes des Indiens naturels, tant dans la guerre que dans la paix. IV. L'état présent du païs, tant à l'égard de la police, que de l'amélioration du païs. Par un auteur natif & habitant du païs. Traduite de l'Anglois. Amst., Th. Lombrail, 1707, (6),432,(16) p., w. engr. frontisp. and 14 plates, 1 fold. letterpress table, cont. mottled calf, giltlettered ribbed spine, large 12mo. Some foxing and a few marg. waterstains, extensive old owner's entry on first free endpaper, a short old owner's entry verso of the table. Overall a very good copy.

First French language edition (translated from the first English edition, 1705) of this early and important account of Virginia by a native of the colony, with important information on the native Americans and the early settlers. A pirated edition was published in the same year by Pierre Ribou in Paris. "After John Smith, the first account of this colony, the first one penned by a native and the best contemporary record of its aborigional tribes and of the life of its early settlers." (Howes B410). "Beverley is the best authority concerning the particular subjects delineated in his quaint an agreeable pages; and his work affords the most vivid, comprehensive, instructive, and entertaining picture of Virginia at the date of his writing that is to be found." (Sabin 5116).