GAUSSOIN (Eugène). The Island of Navassa. [Baltimore, 1866]. -Oblong atlas, 430 x 530: title, (1 f.), 6 plates. Black half-chagrin with corners, gilt fillets, brown percaline boards decorated with the title of the work in a baroque frame, gilt on the first board and cold on the second, smooth spine (publisher's boards). Extremely rare atlas of the Haitian island of La Navasse, published by Eugène Narcisse Gaussoin (1812-1881), mining engineer, metallurgist and Senator from Colorado (1876-1880), whose name is linked to American mining and political history. The island of La Navasse, 40 km from Haiti, has been claimed by the United States since 1857 under the name of Navassa Island. Although uninhabited, it is historically linked to Haiti, mentioned in its 1874 Constitution as a national territory. The island, rich in guano (bird droppings), attracted American attention after the passage of the Guano Islands Act of 1856. In 1857, American entrepreneurs such as Peter Duncan and Edward Cooper seized it on behalf of the United States, exploiting the guano as a fertilizer and explosives component. Haiti protested in 1858, but an armed intervention was aborted by a coup d'état. Despite workers' revolts (notably in 1889) and the end of economic interest in guano (replaced by the Haber process in 1913), the United States maintained control. To our knowledge, this atlas is the first ever devoted to the island. It was published less than ten years after the island's occupation, and provides a precise visual record of the island as it was being mined. Comprising a lithographed frontispiece, a descriptive note and five magnificent lithographed color plates, it reproduces, based on Gaussoin's drawings, a topographical map of the island, and five detailed views, namely: La plage basse - Le Port - Lulutown and Old Diggins (headquarters of the Company's officers) - Lulu Bay (a deep indentation in the coastal platform) and Les Creusements (a scene depicting black workers extracting phosphate guano under the supervision of foremen). The lithographs were produced by artist and lithographer Edward Sachse (1804-1873), whose firm E. Sachse & Co was located in Baltimore. This is an extremely rare historical and graphic document, no copy of which appears to have ever come up for public sale. Faded boards, the spine is missing and has been rebound in dark green percaline, rubbed with use and corners bumped. The body of the book is detached from the binding. Folds and tears to endpapers. However, the leaves making up the atlas are very well preserved, with only a few brown spots.