Kendall, George W.; Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, Comprising a Description of a Tour Through Texas, and Across the Great Southwestern Prairies...1844

Kendall, George W.; Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, Comprising a Description of a Tour Through Texas, and Across the Great Southwestern Prairies, the Camanche and Cayuga Hunting-Grounds, With an Account of the Sufferings from Want of Food, Losses from Hostile Indians, and Final Capture of the Texans, and Their March, as Prisoners, to the City of Mexico. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1844. 1st edition.  Octavo, Vol. 1, pp. 405, frontispiece, folded map at rear, 1 plate. vol. 2, pp. 406, frontispiece, 2 plates.

The set is complete and in the original brown stamped binders cloth with gilt titles. The binding has scuffing with wear at corners and edges, text with toning, and light foxing, browning where a leaf was pressed between pages, map has been repaired with clear archival tape at an edge and placed in a recent sleeve at rear of volume one. Owner’s book plate on paste down. Good condition.


George Wilkins Kendall (1809–1867) was a journalist, war correspondent, and pioneer Texas sheepman, known as the father of the Texas sheep business.
Kendall's book is the best first-hand story of the ill-fated invasion of New Mexico in 1841, an unsuccessful effort to gain control of the Santa Fe Trail, extend the western border of the Republic of Texas to the Rio Grande and secure Texas claims to New Mexico.
The expedition was conceived by the Republic’s President Mirabeau B. Lamar but was poorly thought out, and planed and prepared
As a result the entire expedition was taken captive upon arrival in New Mexico and forced to march to Mexico City. Kendall, editor of the New Orleans Picayune newspaper, accompanied the expedition as an observer. Those who survived the march and imprisonment were released in 1842. Kendall returned to New Orleans and the first short accounts of the expedition appeared in a series of articles in the Picayune.