162 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 27, 1904. 
;PORT§nAN TO 
Trails of the Pathfinders. 
• ~ I. — Introduction. 
Lkss than tliree hundred years ago a half dozen tiny 
s.ettleraents, peopled by white men, dotted the western 
shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. The several vil- 
lages owed, allegiance to nearly as many nations of 
Km-ope, each of which had thrust out a hand to grasp, 
<iiTd- if •possible to hold, a share of the wealth which 
might lie in the untrodden wilderness that stretched 
iiAvay from, the sea shore to the unknown beyond. Even 
at that early day, travelers, chiefly missionaries, had 
lienetrated the interioi, but however far they journeyed 
had found lands occupied only by wild beasts of the 
forest or the prairie, and by the wild men who preyed 
Kpen :them. To the south, it was known that beyond 
this continent lay another ocean, but what this ocean 
was, what its extent, and what its limits, were still secrets. 
-St. Augustine had been fouiaded in 1565; and forty 
years later the French made their first settlement at 
P.Qrt Royal, in what is now Nova Scotia. In 1607 
Ja,me.stown was founded; and- only a year later the 
Fi-ehch established Quebec. The Pilgrims landed in 
Ma-ssachusets in 1620; and the first permanent settle- 
ni'ent of the Dutch on the Island of Manhattan was in 
^^23. But for many years after these dates the strug- 
gling colonists had enough to do to keep body and 
soul together without attempting to discover what was 
l>eyohd them — beyond the sound of the salt waves 
which beat upon the coast. Not until much later was 
any effort made to discover what lay in the vast in- 
terior. 
fTiine went -on. The settlements increased. Men 
pushe4 further and iurther inland. There were wars; 
and one nation after another was crowded from its 
j^ssessions, until, at length, the British owned all the 
settlements in eastern temperate America. The white 
men still clung chiefly to the sea coast, and it was in 
western Pennsylvania that the French and Indians de- 
feated Braddock in 1755, George -Washington being an 
officer under his command. 
' A little later came the war of the Revolution, and a new 
people sprang into being in a land a little more than 
two, hundred and fifty years known. This people, teem- 
ing with energy, kept reaching out in all directions for 
new things. As they increased in numbers they spread 
chiefly in the direction of least resistance. The native 
tribes were easier to displace than the French, who 
liejd forts to the north,^ and the Spanish, who possessed 
territory to the south; and the temperate climate to- 
ward the west attracted them more than the cold of the 
north or the heat of the south. So the Americans 
pushed on always to the setting sun, and their early 
movements gave truth to Bishop Berkeley's line, writteii 
long before and in an altogether, different connec- 
tion,, "Westward the course of Empire takes its way." 
Tife^ Mississippi was reached, and little villages, oc- 
cupied by Frenchmen and their halfbreed children, be- 
gan : to change, to be transformed into American towns. 
Yet- iqi,J790, 95 per cent, of the population of the United 
States was on the Atlantic seaboard. 
■ Np-\v came the Louisiana Purchase, and immediately 
after that the expedition across the continent by Mer- 
riweather Lewis and William Clark. ^The trip took two 
yeai-s' time, and the reports brought back by the in- 
trej)id, explorers, telling the wonderful story of what 
lay in the ,unknown beyond, greatly stimulated the im- 
afination of the western people. Long before this it 
had become known that the western ocean — the South 
Sea of an earlier day— extended north along the con- 
tinent, and that there was no connection here with 
liidia. It wa.s known, too, that the Spaniards occupied 
the west coast. In 1790, Umfreville said: "That there 
are European traders settled among the Indians from 
the othcr side of the continent is v/ithout doubt. I, jny- 
•■•■(■If. liave seen horses with Roman capitals burnt in 
their llanks with a hot iron. I likewise once saw a 
hanger with Spanish words engraved on the blade. 
Many other proofs have been obtained to convinc; 
r.i tint tlie Spaniards on the opposite side of tl':e con- 
tmcnr make their inland peregrinations as well as 
ourselves." 
We.stern travel and exploration, within the United 
States, began soon after the return of Lewis and Clark, 
'j'he- trapper, seeking for peltry — the rich furs so much 
ii-i demand in Europe — was the first to penetrate the un- 
known wilds; but close upon his heels folloued the 
In.dian trader, who used trapper and Indian alike io 
fill his purse. With the trapper and the trader, natur- 
alists began to push out into the west, studying tlie 
fauna and flora of the new lands. About the s.ame 
ti.me the possibilities of trade with the Mexicans in- 
duced the beginning of the Santa Fe trade, that "Com- 
merce of the Prairies" which has been so. fully 
written of by the intrepid spirits who took part, in it. 
Meantime the Government, continued to send out ex- 
peditions, poorly provided in many ways, scarcely 
armed,- barely furnished with provisions, without means 
of iwftking their way through the unknown and danger- 
pus regions to which they were sent, but led by heroes. 
por forty years this work .gf jovgstigation- went 00 J 
for forty years there took place a peopling of the new 
West by men who were in very deed the bravest and 
most adventurous of our brave and hardy border pop- 
luation. They scattered over the plains and through 
the mountains; they trapped the beaver and fought 
the Indian, and guided the explorers; and took to them- 
selves wives from among their very enemies, and raised 
up broods of hardy offspring, some of whom we may 
yet meet as we journey through the cattle and the 
fanning country which used to be the far West. 
If ever any set of men played their part in subduing 
the wilderness, and in plowing the ground to receive 
its seed of settlement, and to rear the crop of civiliza- 
tion which is now being harvested, these men did that 
work, and did it well. If is inconceivable that they 
should have had the foresight to know what they were 
doing; to imagine what it was to be that should come 
after them. They did not think of that. Like the 
bold, brave, hardy men of all times, and of all countries, 
they did the work that lay before them, bravely, faith- 
fully, ^and well, without any special thought of the dis- 
tant future; surely without any regrets for the past. 
As the years rolled by, sickness, battle, the wild animal, 
starvation, murder, death in some form, whether sud- 
den or lingering, struck them down singly or by scores; 
and that a man had been "rubbed out," was cause for 
a sigh of regret or a word of sorrow from his com- 
panions, who forthwith saddled up and started on 
some journey of peril, where their fate might be what 
his had been. 
At the end of forty years the first series of these 
exploratory journeys came to an end. Gold was dis- 
covered in California. The Mexican War took place. 
This was not unexpected, for in the Southwest, about 
the Pueblos of Taos and Santa Fe, skirmishings and 
quarrels between the Spanish-Indian inhabitants, and 
the rough mountaineers and teamsters from the States 
had already given warning of a conflict soon to come. 
Now, well-traveled wagon roads crossed the con- 
cinent, and a stream of westward immigration that 
seemed to have no end. Before long there came 
Indian wars. The immigrants imposed upon the sav- 
ages, ill-treated their wives, and were truculent and 
overbearing to their men. Indians stole from the im- 
migrants, and drove off their horses. Then began a 
season of conflict, which by one tribe and another, 
yet with many intermissions, lasted almost down to our 
own day. For the most part, these Indian wars are 
well within the memory of living men. They have been 
told of b}^ those who saw them and were a part of them. 
Of the travelers who marched westward over the 
arid plains, during the period which intervened be- 
tween the return of Lewis and Clark and the establish- 
ment of the old California trail, and of the earlier 
northmen, who trafficked for the beaver in Canada, a 
few left records of their journeys; and of these records, 
many are most interesting reading, for they are simple, 
faithful narratives of the every-day life of travelers 
through unknown regions. To Americans they are of 
especial interest, for they tell of a time when one-half 
of the continent which now teems with population had 
no inhabitants. The acres which now contribute freely of 
food that subsists the world; the mountains which now 
echo to the rattle of machinery, and the shot of the 
blast which lays bare millions of precious metal; the 
waters which are churned by the propeller blades, 
transporting all the varied products of the land to their 
markets; the forests, which, alas! in too many sec- 
tions, no longer rustle to the breeze, but have been 
swept away to make room for farms and town sites — 
all these were then undisturbed and natural, as they 
had been for a thousand years. Of the travelers who 
passed over the vast stretches of prairie or mountain, 
or woodland, many saw the possibilities of this vast 
land, and prophesied as to what might be wrought here, 
when, in the dim and distant future, which none could 
yet foresee, settlements should have pushed out from the 
east and occupied the land. Yet, up to within a very 
few years, no one, perhaps, conceived of that land's 
possibilities. 
It seems fitting in this year when the celebration of the 
one hundredth anniversary of the acquisition of the 
Louisiana Purchase is being held, that we should take 
a glance backward to something more than a century 
ago, and should review, even though very briefly, some 
of the work that was done by the pioneer travelers in 
the West. Nor does there seem a more effective or 
more just way to do this than to let some of these 
travelers tell the story of their journeyings very much 
in their own way. 
The books that were written concerning this new land 
are mostly long out of print, and difficult of access; 
yet each one of them is well worth perusal. Of the 
authors from whom we shall quote, some bear names 
still familiar, even though their works have been lost 
sight of. Some of them made discoveries of great in- 
terest in one branch or other of science. At a later 
day some attained fame. Parkman's first essay in liter- 
ature was his story of "The California and Oregon 
Trail," a fitting introduction to the many fascinating 
volumes that he contributed later to the early history 
of America; iO W?rShingtQn Irving, one of th? 
greatest of America's historians and essayists, was 
fotmd a narrator who should first tell connectedly of 
the fur trade of -the Northwest, and the adventures of 
Bonneville. 
Not only are many of the books of that day out of 
I)rint and hard to obtain, but some of them have been 
forgottou by all except the student whose interest in 
the early West is sufficient to induce him to consult 
the. bibliophiles who know these volumes. Their 
names are found now and then in the footnotes of some 
history, but except for this they are forgotton — as much 
unknown as if they had never been written. "Astoria," 
the "Tf)ur of the Prairies," and the "Adventures of 
Bonneville," remain classics, to be sure, and Parkman's 
first volume has not been lost sight of. Yet Caron and 
Henry, of the north, Gregg and Kendall, who pictured 
the earhr trade between St. Louis and the Spanish 
settlements,- v/ith Ruxton and Garrard, and Farnham, 
and Townshend, and Parker,, and many others whp, as 
traders, tourists, aiaturalists and explorers, traversed 
these unknown wilds in the early days, and who left 
vivid record,; of the conditions which then prevailed, 
liavc almost v/holly passed from the memory of (he 
generj;! public. 
Beside the books that were published in those times, 
there were written also accounts, usually in the form 
of diaries, or of notes kept from day to day of the 
happenings in the life of this or that individual, which 
are full of interest, because they give us pictures of 
one phase and another of the early travel, or hunting 
adventures, or trading with the Indian;. Such private 
and personal accounts, never for the public eye, are to- " 
day of extreme interest; and it is fortunate that an 
American student, the late Dr. Elliott Coues, has 
given us matchless volumes which tell the stories of 
some of these diarists. Dr. Coues' editions of Lewis 
and Clark, Pike and Long, and his publication of the 
diary of Jacob Fowler, of Alexander Henry, the 
3^ounger, and of Charles Larpenteur, are contributions 
to our history of the winning of the greater West, whose 
value is only now beginning to be appreciated. It is 
gratifying to .see that a younger man has arisen who 
is likely to follow in the footsteps of the illustrious 
predecessors, to take up the work which Dr. Coues 
laid down; and we hope that Capt. Hiram Chittenden 
will find time and inclination to carry forward, through 
many years, his studies of the old-time West. 
The articles which are to follow contain much of 
history which is old, but which, to the average Ameri- 
can, will prove absolutely new. Fond of reading though a 
man may be, he finds it impossible nowadays to keep up 
with the flood of literature that pours from the presses, 
and he has little time to devote either to hunting up 
these old books or to reading them after they have 
been unearthed. One may imagine himself very much 
interested in the old West, familiar with its history 
and devoted to its .study, but it is not until he has gone, 
through volume after volume of this ancient literature 
that he realizes how greatly his knowledge lacks pre- 
cision, and how much he still has to learn concerning 
that country whose centenary is now about to be cele- 
brated. 
The work that the early travelers did, and the books 
they published, showed to the public of their day the 
conditions which existed in the West, caused its settle- 
ment, and led to the slow discovery of its mineral 
treasures, and the slower appreciation of its possibili- 
ties to the farmer and stock-raiser. Each of these 
volumes had its readers, and of the readers of each 
we may be sure that some, or many, attracted by the 
graphic descriptions of the new land, determined that 
they, too, would push out into it; they, too, would 
share in the wealth which it spread out with lavish 
hand. 
It is all so long ago that we who are busy with a 
thousand modern interests, care' little about who con- 
tributed to the greatness of the country which we in- 
habit, and the prosperity which we enjoy. But there 
v. as a day, which men alive may still remember, a day 
of strong men, of brave women, hardy pioneers,' and 
true hearts, who ventured forth into the wilderness, 
braving many dangers that were real, and many more 
that were imaginary, yet to them seemed very real, oc- 
cupied the land, broke up the virgin soil, and peopled 
a wilderness. 
How can the men and women of this generation — 
dwellers in cities, or in peaceful villages, or on smiling 
farm.s — realize what those pioneers did — how they 
lived? He must have possessed stern determination 
and firm courage; who, to better the condition of those 
dearest to him, risk their comfort — their very lives- — 
on the hazard of a settlement in the unknown wilder- 
ness. The woman who accompanied this man bore an 
equal part in the struggle, with devoted helpfulness, 
encouraging him in his strife with nature, or cheering 
him in defeat. ' It the school of self-reliance and hardi- 
hood in which their children were reared gave them 
little of the love of books, it built strong character 
and made them worthy successors of courageous 
parents. We may not comprehend how long and fierce 
was the struggle with the elements, with the bristling 
forest, with the unt>roken soil; how hard and wearing 
