Maillard, History of the Republic of Texas...

MAILLARD, N[icholas] Doran.
The History of the Republic of Texas, from the Discovery of the Country to the Present Time; and the Cause of Her Separation from the Republic of Mexico.
London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1842.
Comparable: Leslie Hindman, 2013 - $5,000.
8vo (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.; 22.12 x 14 cm). Engraved folding map “Boundaries of Texas” handcolored in outline; early repair near mount with neat-line and one letter in legend supplied in manuscript facsimile, lower right corners of first half of text block slightly clipped, lower right corner of p. 203 stained, light, occasional spotting or foxing chiefly marginal. Publisher’s green cloth blocked in blind, spine lettered gilt, yellow-coated endpapers; color restoration to tears on covers and extremities, upper hinge neatly strengthened.
FIRST EDITION OF “THE MOST VITRIOLIC DENUNCIATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS [comprising] a compendium of everything bad that could be claimed about Texas and Texans of those times” (Jenkins). Unlike the Rev. Newell, Maillard uncharitably denounces Texas as “a country filled with habitual liars, drunkards, blasphemers, and slanderers, sanguinary gamesters and cold-blooded assassins” (p.206). His diatribes extend to Stephen Austin, whom he characterizes as “the prince of hypocrites” (p. 30) and to James Bowie as a “reckless drunkard” with a “debauched and sanguinary mind” (pp. 103–104).
A London barrister, Maillard arrived in Texas in 1839 where he briefly practiced law and co-edited a newspaper. Although drawn from original material, the first third of the book presents an extremely biased and anti-Texan account of the Revolution. It is of little wonder that he attacks Kennedy’s pro-Texas history throughout.
“TEXAS CUT DOWN TO SIZE—A DIFFICULT FEAT EVEN IN 1842” (Graff). A strange anomaly, the map is the best—albeit curious—feature of the book. Maillard shrunk the Republic of Texas down to the smallest size yet seen, confining it to the coastal area that reaches inland only as far as San Antonio, Austin, and Nagogdoches. The vast majority of Texas has been given over to an area labelled “Territory of the Texan Indian.” The large panhandle to the north is named “Santa Fe Formerly New Mexico.”
REFERENCES: Graff 2663; Howes M2155; Jenkins, Basic Texas Books 132; Raines, Bibliography of Texas, p. 144; Streeter, Texas 1422; Sabin 43886; Vandale 113