Black Beaver, the Trapper

Transcriber’s Note
The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
The Only Book Ever Written by a Trapper
TWENTY-TWO YEARS WITH BLACK BEAVER LEWIS AND CLARK A HUNDRED YEARS LATER
FROM THE AMAZON TO THE MACKENZIE RIVERS
Copyrighted by Geo. Edward Lewis. Year 1911.
THE FOUNDERS OF THE FIRST ARCTIC ALASKAN EDUCATIONAL EXHIBITION.
BLACK BEAVER AS ARCTIC JIM AT CAMP NEAR MT. McKINLEY
I am both sorry and glad to inform my readers—that I can neither read nor write.
It would seem absurd for a blind man to study the stars, Or for a deaf man to study music; so it might seem to you absurd for a man who cannot write to write a book. But I have an excuse for writing these events. The President of Mexico; and the Governor of Alaska together with several hundreds between, equally as popular have urged me to write my history. I am sorry I cannot write this with my own fingers but I have a substitute in my old back-woods chum—The Kidd. Who by the way—neither writes very flourishing, because he like myself has done the most of his writing with his six-shooter; because you know this a more expressive way of talking and a more impressive way of writing. I have a brother who is a real educated gentleman, he tried to dissuade me from publishing my history because I think he is afraid he will be outshone by literary merit. I have no ambition to outshine him, nor William Shakespere nor any other erudite. I have a very limited vocabulary, and since swearing and smoking are not allowed in print, I shall have to loose the biggest half of that. I shall omit foreign language, I could assault you with Mex—or Siwash but I fear you could not survive the battery. So I shall confine myself to simple speech, such as I have used in all lands. From Gotch my bronco to Arctic my dog. It has served me since I was six summers old It served me amid the bells of Peru and then afar amid the Agate Eyed squaws of The Kuskokwim; and this ought to be a good excuse.—Yours truly