The Project Gutenberg eBook, Trails of the Pathfinders, by George Bird Grinnell

Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See [ https://archive.org/details/trailsofpathfind00grinrich]

IN THE SAME SERIES
Published by CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

The Boy’s Catlin. My Life Among the Indians, by George Catlin. Edited by Mary Gay Humphreys. Illustrated. 12mo. net $1.50

The Boy’s Hakluyt. English Voyages of Adventure and Discovery, retold from Hakluyt by Edwin M. Bacon. Illustrated. 12mo. net $1.50

The Boy’s Drake. By Edwin M. Bacon. Illustrated. 12mo. net $1.50

Trails of the Pathfinders. By George Bird Grinnell. Illustrated. 12mo. net $1.50

TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS

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

TRAILS OF
THE PATHFINDERS

BY
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL
AUTHOR OF “BLACKFOOT LODGE TALES,”
“PAWNEE HERO STORIES AND FOLK TALES,”
“THE STORY OF THE INDIAN,”
“INDIANS OF TODAY,” ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1911

Copyright, 1911, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Published April, 1911

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
From Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by Jonathan Carver		[62]
A Man of the Ottigaumies
From Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by Jonathan Carver		[62]
Alexander Mackenzie
From Mackenzie’s Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America, etc.		[84]
Mackenzie and the Men Jumped Overboard[118]
Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Monument at Colorado Springs, Colorado[208]
Buffalo on the Southern Plains
From Kendall’s Narrative of the Texas Santa Fé Expedition		[236]
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
From Franchere’s Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America		[302]
Caravan on the March
From Gregg’s Commerce of the Prairies		[334]
Wagons Parked for the Night
From Gregg’s Commerce of the Prairies		[340]
Trappers Attacked by Indians
From an old print by A. Tait		[360]
Train Stampeded by Wild Horses
From Bartlett’s Texas, New Mexico, California, etc.		[372]
Major-General John C. Fremont[394]
An Oto Council
From James’s An Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains by Major Stephen H. Long.		[414]
MAP
PAGE
Routes of Some of the Pathfinders[2]