Footnotes to Preface:
[ [1] See statement of the objects of the expedition by Secretary Calhoun, in American State Papers, "Military Affairs," ii, p. 33.
[2] See quotations from contemporary sources in Chittenden, American Fur Trade, ii, p. 562 et seq. Chapter ii of that volume gives a good account of the Yellowstone expedition.
[3] See Preliminary Notice to the Philadelphia edition (1823), which we supply in its proper place in the present reprint—it having been omitted from the London edition which we follow.
[4] Henry Atkinson of North Carolina, became captain in the Third Infantry in 1808. His subsequent record, as given in Powell, List of Officers of the U. S. Army, is as follows: "Col. I. G. 25 April, 1813. Col. 4th Inf., 15 April, 1814. Trans. to 37th Inf., 22 April, 1814. Trans. to 6th Inf., 17 May, 1815. Brig. Gen. 13 May, 1820. Col. A. G., 1 June, 1821 which he declined, and on 16 Aug., 1821, was assigned as Col. 6th Inf. Retained as Col., 21 Aug., with Bvt. rank of Brig. Gen., 13 May, 1820. Died 14 June, 1842."
[5] Atkinson had contrived a device similar to the paddle-wheel of a steamer, for propelling keel-boats, but operated by men. It was afterwards used successfully.
[6] See the description of this boat given in note 145, post.
[7] For biographical sketches see footnote 1 of text.
[8] There are in the two editions differences in phraseology, and each contains a few paragraphs omitted from the other. As a rule these differences are of minor importance; where important, the footnotes to the reprint give both readings. The London edition contains a complete copy of Long's report in place of mere extracts.
[9] The expedition was the most extensive which had been sent out by the government, up to that time; and, as the North American Review remarked, was "in many respects much better qualified and fitted out than Lewis and Clark." Nevertheless, in commenting on the sentence in the Preliminary Notice, in which James explains the scarcity of means for the expedition as due to the state of the national finances, the same journal exclaims: "Detestable parsimony! The only country but one in the world, that has not been reduced to an avowed or virtual bankruptcy; the country, which has grown and is growing in wealth and prosperity beyond any other and beyond all other nations, too poor to pay a few gentlemen and soldiers for exploring its mighty rivers, and taking possession of the empires, which Providence has called it to govern!"