| Preface. The Editor | [ 9] |
| Personal Narrative during an Expedition from St. Louis,through The Vast Regions between that place and the PacificOcean, and thence back through the City of Mexico to VeraCruz, during journeyings of six years; in which he and hisFather, who accompanied him, suffered unheard of Hardshipsand Dangers, had Various Conflicts with the Indians,and were made Captives, in which Captivity his Father died;together with a Description of the Country, and the VariousNations through which they passed. James O. Pattie, ofKentucky, edited by Timothy Flint. | |
| Copyright notice | [ 24] |
| The first Editor's Preface. Timothy Flint | [ 25] |
| Author's Introduction | [ 29] |
| Text | [ 37] |
| The first Editor's Note. Timothy Flint | [325] |
| Inland Trade with New Mexico. Doctor Willard,edited by Timothy Flint | [ 327] |
| Downfall of the Fredonian Republic. Doctor Willard,edited by Timothy Flint | [ 365] |
| Mexico. Some Account of its Inhabitants, Towns, Productions,and Natural Curiosities. Conrad Malte-Brun | [ 370] |
[ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME XVIII]
| Facsimile of title-page, Pattie's Narrative | [ 23] |
| "Rescue of an Indian Child" | [ 57] |
| "Mr. Pattie wounded by an Indian Arrow" | [ 161] |
| "Shooting Mr. Pattie's Horse" | [ 185] |
| "Messrs. Pattie and Slover rescued from Famish" | [ 217] |
| "Burial of Mr. Pattie" | [ 243] |
PREFACE TO VOLUME XVIII
Upon the return, in 1806, of the Lewis and Clark exploring expedition, the first successfully to penetrate from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, the Western imagination was aroused by visions of wealth to be acquired from commercial relations with the Indians of the far Northwest. Fur-trading expeditions were accordingly soon dispatched up the Missouri and its tributaries; and, throughout several years, the equally rich opportunities for Southwestern Indian commerce and exploration were neglected.
Far to the Southwest lay the Spanish settlements of New Mexico, isolated islands of a sluggish civilization. Practically all of their imports were brought in by way of the Gulf of Mexico and Vera Cruz, thence travelling a difficult road of over fifteen hundred miles from the coast, making their cost almost prohibitive to the mixed race of Spaniards and Mexicans who dwelt in the valleys of the upper Rio Grande. Yet within easy reach of their frontier lay one of the chief commercial peoples of the age, to be reached over a wilderness road passing for the most part across level plains, watered by numerous streams—the upper tributaries of the great western affluents of the Mississippi. The common interests of these people and of the Americans lay in an interchange of commodities; but the government of New Spain looked with hostile suspicion upon the aggressive, vigorous race that was even then forcing its borders. Behind the prospect of profit for the overland Southwest trader, loomed the possibility of a gruesome Spanish prison, and confiscation of the adventured goods.