PRESENTATION COPY FROM THOMAS FALCONER
158. KENDALL, George Wilkins. Narrative of an
Expedition Across the Great Southwestern Prairies, from
Texas to Santa Fé; with an Account of the Disasters
Which Befell the Expedition from Want of Food and the
Attacks of Hostile Indians; the Final Capture of the Texans
and their Sufferings on a March of Two Thousand Miles as
Prisoners of War, and in the Prisons and Lazarettos of
Mexico. London: David Bogue, 1845. xii [13]-432 + viii,
436 pp., 2 engraved frontispiece plates, folding
lithographed map: Texas and Part of Mexico & the
United States.... (40.5 x 28.8 cm; 15-7/8 x 11-1/8
inches, below neatline, D. Bogue and J. R. Jobbins, lith.
16mo, three quarter contemporary green morocco over marbled
boards, spine with raised bands and brown gilt-lettered
leather labels, marbled edges. Boards slightly rubbed;
first leaf of text of vol. 1 soiled at outer blank edge;
inner blank margins of vol. 2 title-page and frontispiece
slightly worn and stained; one clean split to map. Minor
faults all, and the set is actually quite handsome, and an
altogether wonderful association copy. Signed presentation
copy from Thomas Falconer, inscribed on the versos of both
titles: "To Miss Nicholl/ from Thomas Falconer one/ of the
Adventurers from San/ Antonio to Santa Fe. 1852." On page
217 of vol. 2 Falconer has added: "In this Mr. Kendall is
altogether in error. Mr. Falconer was not on the roll of
the Texas command & was released at San Cristobal."
This note probably refers to Kendall’s complaints
about the lack of protection given U.S. citizens by its
government as compared to Britain’s apparent
protection of Falconer.
Second
English edition. Basic Texas Books 116C. Plains
& Rockies IV:110:3. Streeter 1515Bn. Thomas
Falconer (1805-1882), jurist and British secret agent, was
among the participants in the abortive Santa Fe expedition.
His diary was added to the seventh edition of this book
(see preceding entry). The Handbook of Texas Online
(Thomas Falconer): "In 1840 [Falconer] determined to
immigrate to the Republic of Texas, where, according to a
letter of introduction to President Mirabeau B. Lamar,
‘his services in its infant jurisprudence will be of
no small value.’ He sailed from Liverpool for Boston
on the Britannia on October 20 and arrived in Austin
in May 1841, just as word of the intended Texan Santa Fe
expedition was on every tongue. Thinking the expedition
into the wilderness a great opportunity for adventure, he
sought and received Lamar’s permission to accompany
Hugh McLeod’s command as ‘historiographer’
and scientific observer. In Lamar’s words,
‘immense accessions’ were to be gained by
Falconer’s ‘observations and labors to our
knowledge of a Country, of which we are almost entirely
ignorant.’ Before departing from San Antonio Falconer
established a warm friendship with George Wilkins Kendall
of the New Orleans Picayune, who was also to
accompany the expedition as a chronicler. Kendall described
Falconer as ‘a young gentleman of high literary and
scientific attainments, mild and agreeable manners, and
extremely sociable and companionable from the first.’
On the trail toward New Mexico, Indians stole
Falconer’s horse, and a prairie fire singed off his
hair and eyebrows. Although accustomed from birth to
‘the luxuries and good things of an English
fireside,’ he endured the hardships of the journey
across unexplored Texas well and even appointed himself
camp cook for his circle of friends. When McLeod divided
his command on the Pease River on August 31, Falconer,
because he was now dismounted, was detailed to remain in
camp. His diary of this period, published as an appendix to
the 1856 edition of Kendall’s Narrative of the
Texan Santa Fe Expedition, is of special significance,
since it provides the only record of attacks by the Kiowas
on Falconer’s party and their near starvation before
McLeod’s men returned on October 9 as prisoners of the
Mexicans. The two halves of the expedition, now reunited,
were marched to El Paso and then to Chihuahua, where
Falconer was confined in the Salón de los
Distinguidos of the Jesuit hospital at the presidio, the
very room in which Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla had
been held captive after the collapse of his revolt in 1811.
The prisoners were removed to Zacatecas and allowed to roam
at will until, because of a clerical error, Falconer was
placed under close arrest on New Year’s night and
remained so on the march to Mexico City. Upon arrival at
the Mexican capital on February 3, 1842, however, he was
immediately released at the demand of the British
minister."
Included with this set is the two-volume 1935 Steck reprint
of the 1844 British edition plus the 1930 limited edition
(300 copies) of Falconer’s Letters and Notes on the
Texan Santa Fe Expedition 1841-1842. (New York: Dauber
& Pine, 1930, very fine in original half grey cloth
over boards, printed papers labels). Basic Texas
Books 116n. Plains & Rockies IV:90n. Tate,
The Indians of Texas: An Annotated Research Bibliography
2049.
(5 vols.)
($1,000-2,000)