Cuming’s work was not immediately published after writing. The manuscript passed into the possession of Zadok Cramer, a Pittsburg printer who was particularly interested in Ohio and Mississippi navigation, for which he published a technical guide called The Navigator, that ran through numerous editions. Cramer annotated Cuming’s manuscript, adding thereto a considerable appendix of heterogeneous matter—collected, as he says in his advertisement, “from various sources while the press was going on with the work, and frequently was I hurried by the compositors to furnish copy from hour to hour.” This material, much of it irrelevant and reprinted from other works, the present Editor has thought best to omit. It ranges from a description of the bridge at Trenton to Pike’s tour through Louisiana—embracing such diverse matter as “Of the character of the Quakers,” “Sculptures of the American Aborigines,” and “Particulars of John Law’s Mississippi Scheme.”
The hope of Cramer that a second edition would soon be called for, was not fulfilled. Put forth in 1810, the book has never been reprinted until the present edition, which it is believed will be welcomed by students of American history.
As in former volumes of the series, Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph.D., of the Wisconsin Historical Library, has assisted in the preparation of the notes. The Editor desires, also, to acknowledge his obligations to Mrs. Frances C. Wordin, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, for valuable information concerning her grandfather, Dr. John Cummins, of Bayou Pierre, Mississippi.
R. G. T.
Madison, Wis., April, 1904.
Cuming’s Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country—1807-1809.
Reprint of the original edition (Pittsburgh, 1810). The Appendix, being composed of irrelevant matter, is herein omitted.
SKETCHES OF A TOUR
TO THE WESTERN COUNTRY,
THROUGH
THE STATES OF OHIO AND KENTUCKY;
A VOYAGE
DOWN THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS,
AND A TRIP
THROUGH THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY, AND
PART OF WEST FLORIDA.
COMMENCED AT PHILADELPHIA IN THE WINTER
OF 1807, AND CONCLUDED IN 1809.
BY F. CUMING.
WITH NOTES AND AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING
SOME INTERESTING FACTS, TOGETHER WITH
A NOTICE OF AN EXPEDITION THROUGH
LOUISIANA.
PITTSBURGH,
PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY CRAMER, SPEAR & EICHBAUM, FRANKLIN HEAD BOOKSTORE, IN MARKET, BETWEEN FRONT & SECOND STREETS—1810.