Along The Hudson And Mohawk: The 1790 Journey Of Count Paolo Andreani,Used

From the PublisherCesare Marino is an anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution. His books include The Sioux Vocabulary of 1823, Dal Piave at Little Bighorn, and The Remarkable Carlo Gentile, Pioneer Italian Photographer of the West.Karim M. Tiro teaches history at Xavier University.Product DescriptionIn the summer of 1790 the Italian explorer Count Paolo Andreani embarked on a journey that would take him through New York State and eastern Iroquoia. Traveling along the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, Andreani kept a meticulous record of his observations and experiences in the New World. Published complete for the first time in English, the diary is of major importance to those interested in life after the American Revolution, political affairs in the New Republic, and Native American peoples.Through Andreani's writings, we glimpse a world in cultural, economic, and political transition. An active participant in Enlightenment science, Andreani provides detailed observations of the landscape and natural history of his route. He also documents the manners and customs of the Iroquois, Shakers, and German, Dutch, and Anglo New Yorkers. Andreani was particularly interested in the Oneida and Onondaga Indians he visited, and his description of an Oneida lacrosse match accompanies the earliest known depiction of a lacrosse stick. Andreani's American letters, included here, relate his sometimes difficult but always revealing personal relationships with Washington, Jefferson, and Adams.Prefaced by an illuminating historical and biographical introduction, Along the Hudson and Mohawk is a fascinating look at the New Republic as seen through the eyes of an observant and curious explorer.Book DescriptionPublished for the first time complete in English, the 1790 diary of Count Paolo Andreani is of major importance to those interested in life after the American Revolution, political affairs in the New Republic, and Native Americans.About the AuthorCesare Marino is an anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution. His books include The Sioux Vocabulary of 1823, Dal Piave at Little Bighorn, and The Remarkable Carlo Gentile, Pioneer Italian Photographer of the West. Karim M. Tiro teaches history at Xavier University.Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.PrefaceFrom midAugust to midSeptember 1790, count Paolo Andreani of Milan undertook a monthlong journey through New York State and eastern Iroquoia. Andreani kept a journal of his observations of the human and physical landscape, as well as the daily details of his progress up the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. He likely intended to publish it in some form, for afterwards he produced a partially edited, annotated, and illustrated version, copied out carefully in his own best hand. Although the journal never appeared in print, the manuscript may well have circulated among members of his family and his network of personal acquaintances in Italy. Because there is no evidence of its translation into French or English, however, it is unlikely that it circulated among his wider circle of correspondents, which included Francisco de Miranda and the Duke de la RochefoucauldLiancourt.No copies of Andreani's original field notes seem to have survived. Nor, with a single exception, have the illustrations alluded to in the text. They may have been seized by the count's many unhappy creditors. Alternatively, they may have sunk in the Atlantic along with some minerals and 'other natural curiosities' Andreani sent his brother on an illfated vessel; or in a New York river when Andreani's sled fell through the ice, taking with it papers, scientific instruments, and three horses. However, Andreani's fair copy of his travel journal, which runs to 119 numbered pages, survived, and some time in the twentieth century it became the possession (along with several other Andreani journals and papers) of one of Andreani's descendants, Count Antonio Sormani Verri of Milan. In the