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
Introduction
Alexander Henry
Jonathan Carver
Alexander Mackenzie
Lewis and Clark
Zebulon M. Pike
Alexander Henry (The Younger)
Ross Cox
The Commerce of the Prairies
Samuel Parker
Thomas J. Farnham
Fremont
Download
Trails of the Pathfinders here
(pdf)