The venerable Mark L. Spotts, an intelligent and long-time resident of Lewisburg, West Virginia, writes, in December, 1890: “I had an old and particular friend, Mr. Thomas Matthews, of this place, who, many years ago, conceived the idea of preparing and publishing a revised edition of Withers’s Border Warfare, and no doubt had collected many facts looking to such a publication; but the old man’s health gave way, he died, and his widow moved away, and what became of his notes, I can not say––perhaps destroyed.”––L. C. D.
Footnotes for Introduction: Chapter 1
The author errs somewhat in his review of the voyages of the Cabots. In 1497, John set out to reach Asia by way of the north-west, and sighted Cape Breton, for which the generous king gave him £10 and blessed him with “great honours.” In 1498, Sebastian’s voyage was intended to supplement his father’s; his exploration of the coast extended down to the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay.––R. G. T.
This refers to the explorations of Jacques Cartier. But as early as 1534 Cartier sailed up the estuary of the St. Lawrence “until land could be seen on either side;” the following year he ascended the river as far as the La Chine rapids, and wintered upon the island mountain there which he named Mont Real. It was in 1541 that he made his third voyage, and built a fort at Quebec. The author’s reference, a few lines below, to a “Spanish sailor” in the St. Lawrence, is the result of confusion over Cartier’s first voyages; Cortereal was at Newfoundland for the Portuguese in 1500; and Gomez for Spain in 1525.––R. G. T.
The author wrote at too early a date to have the benefit of Parkman’s researches. La Salle had probably discovered the Ohio River four years before the voyage of Joliet and Marquette.––R. G. T.