Chapter I: Preface

The chapters in this book appeared first as part of a series of articles under the same title contributed to _Forest and Stream_ several years ago. At the time they aroused much interest and there was a demand that they should be put into book form.

The books from which these accounts have been drawn are good reading for all Americans. They are at once history and adventure. They deal with a time when half the continent was unknown; when the West--distant and full of romance--held for the young, the brave and the hardy, possibilities that were limitless.

The legend of the kingdom of El Dorado did not pass with the passing of the Spaniards. All through the eighteenth and a part of the nineteenth century it was recalled in another sense by the fur trader, and with the discovery of gold in California it was heard again by a great multitude--and almost with its old meaning.

Besides these old books on the West, there are many others which every American should read. They treat of that same romantic period, and describe the adventures of explorers, Indian fighters, fur hunters and fur traders. They are a part of the history of the continent.

NEW YORK, _April_, 1911.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 3

II. ALEXANDER HENRY--I 13

III. ALEXANDER HENRY--II 36

IV. JONATHAN CARVER 57

V. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE--I 84

VI. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE--II 102

VII. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE--III 121

VIII. LEWIS AND CLARK--I 138

IX. LEWIS AND CLARK--II 154

X. LEWIS AND CLARK--III 169

XI. LEWIS AND CLARK--IV 179

XII. LEWIS AND CLARK--V 190

XIII. ZEBULON M. PIKE--I 207

XIV. ZEBULON M. PIKE--II 226

XV. ZEBULON M. PIKE--III 238

XVI. ALEXANDER HENRY (THE YOUNGER)--I 253

XVII. ALEXANDER HENRY (THE YOUNGER)--II 271

XVIII. ALEXANDER HENRY (THE YOUNGER)--III 287

XIX. ROSS COX--I 301

XX. ROSS COX--II 319

XXI. THE COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES--I 330

XXII. THE COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES--II 341

XXIII. SAMUEL PARKER 359

XXIV. THOMAS J. FARNHAM--I 372

XXV. THOMAS J. FARNHAM--II 382

XXVI. FREMONT--I 393

XXVII. FREMONT--II 405

XXVIII. FREMONT--III 415

XXIX. FREMONT--IV 428

XXX. FREMONT--V 435

ILLUSTRATIONS

CAPTAINS LEWIS AND CLARK WERE MUCH PUZZLED AT THIS POINT TO
KNOW WHICH OF THE RIVERS BEFORE THEM WAS THE MAIN MISSOURI
_Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE
“I NOW RESIGNED MYSELF TO THE FATE WITH WHICH I WAS MENACED” 28

A MAN OF THE NAUDOWESSIE 62
From _Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America_,
by Jonathan Carver

A MAN OF THE OTTIGAUMIES 62
From _Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America_,
by Jonathan Carver

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE 84
From Mackenzie’s _Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent
of North America_, etc.

MACKENZIE AND THE MEN JUMPED OVERBOARD 118

LIEUTENANT ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE, MONUMENT AT COLORADO SPRINGS,
COLORADO 208

BUFFALO ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS 236
From Kendall’s _Narrative of the Texas Santa Fé Expedition_

TWO MEN MOUNTED ON HER BACK, BUT SHE WAS AS ACTIVE WITH THIS LOAD
AS BEFORE 270

FUR TRADERS OF THE NORTH 280

ASTORIA IN 1813 302
From Franchere’s _Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest
Coast of America_

CARAVAN ON THE MARCH 334
From Gregg’s _Commerce of the Prairies_

WAGONS PARKED FOR THE NIGHT 340
From Gregg’s _Commerce of the Prairies_

TRAPPERS ATTACKED BY INDIANS 360
From an old print by A. Tait

TRAIN STAMPEDED BY WILD HORSES 372
From Bartlett’s _Texas, New Mexico, California_, etc.

MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT 394

AN OTO COUNCIL 414
From James’s _An Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
Mountains by Major Stephen H. Long_.

MAP
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ROUTES OF SOME OF THE PATHFINDERS 2

TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS

TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS