12 Preface 



pioneers remembered in their old age. The later 

 historians, for the most part, merely follow these 

 two. In consequence, the mass of original material, 

 in the shape of official reports and contemporary 

 letters, contained in the Haldimand MSS., the 

 Campbell MSS., the McAfee MSS., the Gardoqui 

 MSS., the State Department MSS., the Virginia 

 State Papers, etc., not only cast a flood of new light 

 upon this early history, but necessitate its being en- 

 tirely rewritten. For instance, they give an ab- 

 solutely new aspect to, and in many cases completely 

 reverse, the current accounts of all the Indian fight- 

 ing, both against the Cherokees and the Northwest- 

 ern tribes; they give for the first time a clear view 

 of frontier diplomacy, of the intrigues with the 

 Spaniards, and even of the mode of life in the back- 

 woods, and of the workings of the civil government. 

 It may be mentioned that the various proper names 

 are spelt in so many different ways that it is difficult 

 to know which to choose. Even Clark is some- 

 times spelt Clarke, while Boone was apparently in- 

 different as to whether his name should or should 

 not contain the final silent e.. As for the original 

 Indian titles, it is often quite impossible to give 

 them even approximately; the early writers often 

 wrote the same Indian words in such different ways 

 that they bear no resemblance whatever to one an- 

 other. 



In conclusion I would say that it has been to me 

 emphatically a labor of love to write of the great 

 deeds of the border people. I am not blind to their 



