This three volume set reveals the serious intent of the French government in its preparations to assume control of Louisiana territory. The author, Victor Collot, served as a young man on the staff of General Rochambeau during the American Revolution. Collot later served as Governor of Guadeloupe but was kicked out of office when the English captured the island.

Removed to Philadelphia, he then undertook a spy mission on behalf of his government, surveying the Ohio and Mississippi rivers during the summer of 1796. This three volume set (1 is a large format atlas of maps) is the fruit of that labor and was intended to assist the French government in its long-planned invasion of Louisiana.

Not by chance, Volney also visited the Ohio valley that very same summer. His account of the "Soil and Climate" of the US is the fruit of that trip (see my review). Collot's mission has been well-documented by Louisiana historians, but Volney's role has been largely ignored.

In the event, Collot descended to New Orleans and was arrested by Governor Carondelet. Volney, upon learning the governor was on the hunt for French spies, aborted his original plan to visit New Orleans and returned to New York by way of the Great Lakes. (For you historians reading this--hint, hint--an interesting research question is whether Collot and Volney met, or even knew of each other's presence, during their separate Ohio valley travels in the summer of 1796.)

Years later, Bonaparte assigned Collot to the expedition designated to take possession of New Orleans but that mission was cancelled after the failure of General Leclerc's expedition to Saint Domingue (Haiti).

Strangely, this original edition of Collot's "Journey in North America" was printed in English even though it was published in France. In my view, after Bonaparte sold the territory, a kind of collective defense mechanism set-in among the French--they didn't care to look directly at What Might Have Been. Bonaparte showed evidence of this himself when twice after his ouster he refused opportunities to escape to New Orleans which by that time (1815-16) had become a thriving US port city.

In any event, Collot published this account in English in Paris mainly because, by the 1820's, only the Americans were interested in his findings.